Simultaneous Translation

When you look at the list of names for the day's tests and see the second to last one is someone identified as Saw Tee thoughts run through your head.  Will he or she need a translator?  Have they ever driven before this month?  Is my will up to date?

Yesterday a car arrives at the appropriate time, a nice Asian gentleman gets out of the vehicle, says "Hello Bob, and then informs me that the guy who will take the test is on the way but will be using this car.  Since there are many times when people say they are "on the way" and will be there any moment but then they still have not arrived a half an hour later I tell the gentleman that his friend has 10 minutes to get here or I will not have enough time to conduct the test.

He tells me that he is doing a favor for the pastor of the church that is sponsoring this particular group of refuges, then gets out his cell phone, calls someone, and for several minutes is very insistent with whomever he is talking to, speaking in another language but interspersed with "right now!"  Five minutes later another vehicle arrives and out from the back pops Mr. Tee.  He is a nice looking, well built guy and I'm guessing he is originally from someplace like Burma or Nepal.

Before they arrived I asked the first guy if he would be translating and because he was I asked to see his driver's license to record the name and license number on my test form.  He told me that most people called him Tom.  I tell Tom to have Mr. Tee get in the car and we would begin by conducting a vehicle inspection.  Tom points to his vehicle and says to Mr. Tee; "Get in car!"  I then go to the front of the car and say to tap the horn.  "Horn!  Beep! Beep!" translates Tom.  Then I ask for the right and left turn signals.  "Signals!" translates Tom, pointing first to the right one and then the left.  At the back of the car I ask for Tee to step on the brakes.  "Brakes!" insists Tom to Tee.

I then begin to give the instructions for the parking maneuvers.  Now here to get the full impact of my experience I want you practice saying "that way" as Tom would say it.  For me to be able to duplicate it I need to first close my eyes as hard as possible and then pronounce "that" a little clipped, as in "tht" and "way" a little elongated and through the nostrils in a higher pitched voice as in "wAAAy".  Got it?  Good.

I tell Tom to tell Tee that it will be a penalty any time the vehicle goes over a yellow line or hits a cone and that it is also a penalty each time the vehicle goes from reverse to forward.  Immediately Tom informs Tee; "Yellow line.  Bad!  Cones.  Bad!  Your car go this way, not that way!"  Then I point to the yellow forward stop line which is the first exercise and tell Tom to tell Tee that he needs to pull forward and get his vehicle close to but not on or past the yellow line in front of us. When he is done put the vehicle in park and tap the horn.  Tom responds; "You go that way!  That way!  Yellow line bad!  Then horn.  Beep!  Beep!"

We go on with the parking lot portion of the test.  About every fifth word is in another language so I'm thinking that maybe Tee really needs a translator but it's like I'm saying something and the echo comes back instantly and everything has somehow become quite garbled.  Mr. Tee does quite well on the parking portion and we go out for our drive.  The first section is in a residential area.  I say to turn left at the next intersection, Tom translates; "Intersection.  That way!"  We get to the four way stop and Tee blows right through it.  We head back to start and I spend a few minutes explaining the error to Tom and Tee using visual aides as best I can.  Although Tee hasn't said one word this whole time Tom tells me that Tee doesn't understand why he failed so he will drive him back to the spot and show him.

I get out of the vehicle and head to my car and then Tom walks over.  I have 5 more guys that need to get their test.  When can we do it?  And I'm thinking that I really need to look at that will again.