Going for the Brown!

Charlie's brown belt test.  He passed with flying colors, but only one color mattered to him:  Brown!!

On top of that, he also won the outstanding achievement trophy. 

But wait, there's more!  There was even a funny background story happening behind the scenes.  

We found out a couple of weeks before the exam that Charlie's regular interpreter would be on vacation and not able to interpret the test.  Usually she and I do that together--she interprets the bulk of it as the primary interpreter, and I'll stand at the back as secondary to count and interpret whatever is being said when Charlie is facing the back of the room instead of the front.  

Charlie flat-out refused to have a substitute for the primary interpreter and said he wanted me to do it, which is fine, I'm quite capable at this point.  So what we cooked up was that his regular terp would request a sub, and we would put the sub in the secondary position, doing what I usually do.  

Comes the night of the exam, and I got there about 15 minutes early, and the head instructor informs me the other terp is there already.  Once we located him, he introduced himself by first name, and he was very nervous about the fact that they would be using Korean terminology that he wasn't familiar with.  I reassured him that all he had to do was keep count (and the numbers didn't even matter so much as the rhythm so that Charlie knew when to do the next move), and that I would sign everything being said even when Charlie wasn't facing me so that the guy could just copy-sign me.  Told him it would be the easiest 2-hour assignment of his life.  He gave a weak, nervous grin and got in position where we wanted him. 

His signing was great, and he did a fine job at what we wanted him to do.  

Once the exam was over, and the candidates were sitting there waiting for the judges to finish deciding what belts each person would be awarded, the guy said I looked familiar and asked if I did a lot of community interpreting.  I told him I was just a student and was starting practicum next week, and he grinned and said he was really impressed at how I handled the test, and then he introduced himself by both first and last names and said that he was the Senior Manager at __________ (a local interpreting agency).  

My jaw just hit the floor - I had tried to get a screening interview with that agency back before Christmas, and it never came about despite many e-mail communications between me and the office staff.  When I mentioned that, he said, "I'll take care of that."  

The next morning, there was an e-mail waiting for me with a list of times to pick from for a screening interview, and he is also offering to give me some mentoring hours on team assignments with him personally for my practicum requirements.  I told him I felt a little silly for having such a senior interpreter there and sticking him in the corner and just having him count and copy-sign, but that on further reflection, I honestly didn't think I would change a thing, since Charlie was nervous about the thought of having a terp who hadn't worked with him previously and didn't know the terminology--and ultimately, Charlie is the client.  The guy said not to worry, he wouldn't have changed a thing about how I handled that assignment.  (Whew!)

God is good.  At just the point when I'm a little worried about the company I work for part-time and how much longer that job will last, God dumps this right in my lap to help me prepare for my new part-time profession.  Yay, God!!

And Yay, Charlie, too!!  He looks good in brown, don't ya think?