I am Shiny, a university student from Hong Kong studying translation. Having a precious chance, I came here, Sydney, to have an internship around two months. Before the trip, I was so excited but also nervous. This is the first time for me to leave my family and belonged city for that long period. I arrived on Thursday and started working on Monday after many sightseeing trips. The workplace of my internship is the NSW Writers’ Centre. This is so great to work here because I love writing, languages and words, that’s why I study translation. Have a look of my diaries, and share all these exciting and interesting experiences with me!
28/5 Monday – Have you ever thought about being in a total different world? That was the feeling of me on the first day of the internship here, the NSW Writers’ Centre. My first impression of people here is, they are very tall; I just like a little kid compared to their height. As a student, the feeling of being in a workplace is very special. It’s totally different from school! Fortunately, they’re all very kind and welcoming. I spent a whole day to know more about the background of NSWWC and the working system. I found that the NSWWC is really a great place which I hope there will be one in Hong Kong. The courses and activities here are so attractive, the more I searched, the more I got interested. I am really looking forward to the coming days.
29/5 Tuesday – It was raining in the morning. It’s the second day I’ve started my internship, but it still a bit difficult for me to find the right path to go to work. The streets and roads are different from Hong Kong. Luckily, there are many green signs for guidance and I didn’t get lost. We had a staff meeting today and I learnt much from that, although most of the things were not related to me. I found that the meeting was smooth, efficient and also the atmosphere was great. The working system and leadership of the director are very useful to me as I am the president of the executive committee of translation society in the university I study in Hong Kong. I learnt a lot from today’s meeting.
30/5 Wednesday – After two days’ readings, it’s time to start working today. Things I need to do are about checking data and processing address labels. Seems boring right? In fact, I was very enjoyed with the works. I also got myself familiar with those English names, writing format of English address and the name of places in Sydney as another benefit. Sometimes, you can find something more than you think in a simple matter
31/5 Thursday – So far, times of being here is great! From today’s work of mailing, I knew more about names and addresses, which I think are useful for translation in my future time. This basic knowledge of different countries’ culture is important that can make a translation sounds more natural. But no course will teach about that, it must be learnt in real life. I am thankful to have this chance.
1/6 Friday – It was really great to join the First Friday Club! I noticed this event on website before and got interested with it. I am so glad to have a chance to get involved. The guest of this month’s First Friday Club is Kirsten Tranter. We had a good discussion about her books The Legacy and A common loss, also about publishing and writing. I also had a chance to raise my question about translation when she was talking about her books being translated into Chinese and Spanish. She brought me some new ideas of translating books and the translation market. It’s the end of this week already, I believe next week will be better!