I’m so happy to announce that Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta Airport finally open the New Terminal 3. This will be the new symbol of International Airport in Indonesia. It’s not operational yet, but I got invited to the special Pre-Opening Ceremony.
It will be operational for Domestic flight next Aug 10th 2016, and will be fully operational for both Domestic and International Flight on March 2017.
Having a lot of participation in Government related project, I have been contributing in Indonesia’s Infrastructure Development as an Interpreter for Japanese ODA. One of such example is on the project when I helped a Japanese Company to set up a rain water storage facility in Bogor to prevent Flood to Jakarta.
In many occasion, usually Indonesian side is learning from Japan side such as the example above. However my current project is on the opposite. Currently I am helping an Indonesian IT Company to go to Japan to train Japanese User to use the System they had bought from Indonesia. Due to my very strong background in IT field, I was chosen and hired to facilitate all the interpretation and translation during the training and also support the system in Japan for a couple of months.
Today I am writing this blog because this will be the last entry this year that is written in Indonesia. I will leave Jakarta to Japan tonight for the IT project above. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and this is also a “Pride” moment for Indonesian that managed to enter Advanced Country market in their game. This is one of my way to contribute to my own country, what is yours ?
Deddy Effendy helped a Producer from TBS Japan when interviewed with RCTI (local Indonesian TV network) during the audition of Sasuke Indonesia Ninja Warrior.
I always love the show for both Sasuke (Original Japan version) and American Ninja Warrior (USA version). It is an honor for me to participate in helping the show in Indonesia.
Last Monday on Sep 7th 2015, a dead body of young Japanese woman was found in her apartment in Jakarta. On Wednesday Sep 10th 2015, I was hired as interpreter for Japanese – Bahasa for the victim’s parent, victim’s boss, polices (both from Indonesia and Japan).
It was really a heartbreaking experience to see the parent’s loss. We spent our time at Police’s office and Hospital where the body was kept. For the investigation’s purpose, the police needed to ask many standard questions to the parent, such as when was the last contact etc (I will not go into details of the questions). At the hospital, it really brings tears to see the parents crying over their daughter’s body. This is actually the first time for me to interpret the dead body confirmation process inside corpse room.
After confirming the body of their daughter, the father gave this statement : “I want to avoid that the image of Indonesia will get hurt because of this incident. My daughter loves Indonesia a lot. I do not want to give perception that Indonesia is a horrible place. I think that is not my daughter’s wish”. This really shows the Japanese Heart and Japanese goodness. I really moved by the statement and really salute them.
A day later, Indonesian police managed to found and catch the murder suspect. Although this doesn’t bring their daughter back, but I do hope the parents could have some peace of mind knowing that the case has been solved rather quickly by the Police. Another interesting point to note is, since I was the official interpreter for the parent, and the parent chose not to participate in law court of Indonesia, the police said that I might be summoned to represent the parent’s statement.
As a Japanese Interpreter, I have been participating in many events as host plus interpreter. In this post I want to share about the events called “Global Sushi Challenge” in Indonesia during August, 25th-27th 2015. The event was divided into 3 days: Day 1 (Seminar), Day 2 (Training), Day 3 (Competition).
I was chosen by the Event Organizer to take care of Master Sushi Chef from Japan which is Kazato san and his colleague. So my Job during those 3 days is to interpret all Kazato san’s explanation during the seminar and hands on Training from Japanese to Bahasa Indonesia. At the end of every day, we have a summary meeting with the Sponsor from Norway so I need to interpret to 3 languages which is Japanese – English – Bahasa Indonesia.
I learned a lot of knowledge regarding Sushi. Now I know all of the reasons of using Vinegar to coat the Shari (sushi rice), the usage of Gari (ginger), the usage of Tezu (dripping your finger with vinegar while making nigiri zushi), the usage of Ocha as the beverage when eating sushi, the usage of wasabi etc. It’s all because of their anti-bacteria attribute. As we know that real sushi use raw fish such as salmon etc to make. So it is important that to ensure the food safety level.
Anyway, Congratulations to Chef Slamet that is the winner of the competition. He will represent Indonesia in Grand Final in Japan this November.
The award ceremony involved many known people and association in Indonesian culinary world such as Farah Queen, Mr Bondan, Indonesia Chef Association, Femina, DetikFood, and many media such as NetTv, TransTv and so on. And of course the representative from Japanese Embassy and Norway Embassy also came by.
More pictures can be seen in my facebook : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10206827810868053.1073741834.1059661199&type=1&l=e9e30524ea
I just arrived back to Jakarta after giving interpretation service in Singapore. I was acting as Interpreter for Japanese – English – Bahasa Indonesia language in “SG 50 Nails Festival”. This is the second time this year that I got job in Singapore.
Throughout my career as a Japanese Interpreter, most of the theme relates with Governmental meeting, Board of Director Meeting, Business Matching, Training, IT Seminar, Medical Seminar and so on. This is actually the first time ever that I got a job about “Nails”, which is quite a girly type of subject. However I found this is another interesting world. At least now whenever someone is talking it, I might know a thing or two. I have learned special terms in the nail industry such as acrylic or gel extension, stone deco art, mixed media art, ribbon, free hands etc.
In the Event, I met the Japanese Legendary in Nails Industry such as Miyuki Kaneko and Eriko Kurosaki. My job is to interpret their Japanese language to English language for the audience during their speech and or when they are asked about comments from the MC. On top of that since I’m also a native Indonesian speaker, I also interpreted a representative from Indonesia during his speech from Bahasa Indonesia to English language. Overall this is another great experience for me wearing Batik (Indonesian Traditional Official clothes) on the stage while delivering interpretation in 3 languages which is Japanese, English and Bahasa Indonesia.
Last but not least, Happy 50th Anniversary for Singapore!!!
As an Interpreter for Japanese – English – Bahasa, I have been hired in several official events. Some of them were held in another Country. Up to this moment I have been hired in Countries such as Japan, Singapore, Vietnam and of course my own country which is Indonesia. Inside Domestic Indonesia itself I have been hired in several cities such as Jakarta, Jakarta Greater Area (Jabodetabek), Medan, Surabaya and several other minor cities.
Earlier in this month, I need to be in Singapore, Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya within 1 full week. So that’s like 4 Cities and 2 Countries in just only 1 week. Without giving in too much detail about the job itself, what I could disclose here is that the job came from multiple different clients. One of them is hiring me for Interpreting a Japanese Professor in some International Medical Seminar while the other is hiring me for some group Interview for Feasibility Study in Insurance Company.
As we know that every client has their own characteristic. Some were so strict that I was forbidden to have any conversation at all with the Japanese side even though it is a free time. So I can only interact with the Japanese when the Job’s session has begun. It is interesting because mostly other client would want to me interact as much as I could with the Japanese side to make sure the preparation is well made before we hit the scene. As Interpreter we need to be flexible too in order to accommodate the client’s needs, fortunately that is one of my specialty. Not only Interpreting, but sometimes I also add more information based on my experiences and give valuable insight to the clients. By doing this extra mile effort, I have gained quite a good client’s satisfactions which indirectly relates to many more references and repeat order in both domestic and international clients.
As an Interpreter that provides freelance services, it is a common thing to bump into Job Cancellation here and there. So when it happened, you need to think for your own escape plan. Let’s say a client offer you a job, but you already had another job with another client, therefore you turned them down. But suddenly the other client that should be hiring you decided to cancel out the job. You don’t want to be in that position do you ?
Although it depends on your relation with your client, but one of the best method is to use “Confirmation Letter” and write your cancellation policy in that letter. Some of the policy might look like these.
You could use different figures, but you got the concept. The point is to give your client this Confirmation Letter and had them sign it if possible. If it’s not possible to get their signature, then at least email them the content of your Confirmation Letter.
In a real case that happened to me, I had a job agreement last month in May that got cancelled. And due to the cancellation policy, I still cashed out $900 out of $1500 worth project.
Have you ever lost your stuff in Airport and gotten it back ? In Indonesia, most of us believe that when you lost something in public spaces, then it will be 100% lost without any chances for getting it back. But my story is kind of different.
On May 6th, 2015 I was heading to Singapore to attend some event. While I was in Jakarta Airport where I must pass the security guard with metal detector, I accidentally forgot to take my wristwatch back after I took it off to get checked in conveyor scanning machine. Although I don’t want to be seemed like making excuses for my clumsiness, I think this definitely has something to do with the fact that I had only less than 3 hours sleep on the night before. Anyway, I was in shocked state inside the plane because I just realized my mistake just a few minutes before the plane was taking off the ground.
After finishing my business in Singapore, I went back again to Jakarta on May 9th, 2015. So 3 days have passed since I lost the watch. However I did have a strange feeling that somehow the watch will find its way back to me again. Just like the Law of Attraction, when you’re thinking what you want and mixed it with enough believe and positive energy, then the Universe will somehow respond and get you what you wanted.
So after reporting my lost in several security guards, finally I was pointed to some room that has the Lost & Found file reports. You might want to take a mental note on where this place is just in case you need it in the future, it is across the departure gate 3, in a small door where there was a big Soekarno Hatta Airport sign on the side of it. So that is where I got my watch back. I couldn’t believe that I could actually retrieve my watch back. This shows how much the quality has been improved for Soekarno Hatta Jakarta Airport. Although when I was in the room, there were 2 other women that also reporting missing stuff and seemed pretty upset because they couldn’t find it. Well I hope the best for them.
So the moral of the story is, have faith/belief and put your positive energy on something that you want.
Inacraft is Indonesian Handicraft Trade Exhibition. For 2015 it was held from 8th ~ 12th April. A lot of Indonesian traditional handicraft like Fashion, Jewelry, Gift Items etc can be bought in this Expo. For me personally it is one of the good timing to buy me some Batik shirts.
Batik is Indonesian Traditional cloths. Just like suits and necktie in the west and Kimono in Japan. Indonesian usually uses Batik in formal event. Batik itself has different type. The most expensive one is usually the hand-made Batik, because it will ensure that no one else will wear the same Batik Pattern. Anyway, I will not go into depth regarding Batik Type in this post.
As an Interpreter and Public Speaker myself, sometimes there are events that require me to wore Batik. So it would not hurt to keep some stocks of it. Even foreigner that stays long enough in Indonesia will usually use Batik in the social event. I’ve met a lot of Japanese that actually wore Batik too.
After passing through hundreds of booths there, I finally decided to buy some Batik in one of the booth. And like almost anything here in Indonesia, everything is negotiable. I will not go into details on how I did the negotiations. All I can say is that I got 20% cheaper than the initial asking price. And it’s not a bad deal, especially if I compare the price in normal shops outside the exhibition for the similar type of Batik.
*Trying the Batik inside the Booth.
*Shopping some Batik in Inacraft 2015
So that’s it for this post. I hope I could interest you more in Batik if you’re not already. I just want to promote Indonesian Culture, and one of the easiest way is through Batik.