Thankfully, learning French just came naturally to me. Obviously, I had struggles – the discomfort of learning a strange alphabet, pronunciation and syntax – but the opportunity to learn a new culture, a new way of thinking, a new world, was priceless.
By the time I entered university, my choice of the mandatory foreign language course was a no-brainer. What had started as a summer hobby turned into minor degree in French Studies. And the next thing that happened surprised me.
A couple of years post-graduation, I had to fly to Italy for a global convention of speakers, authors, and academicians. Initially, I was assigned to do administrative work in English.
But then, an emergency came up, and the event translator was denied his Schengen Visa. Knowing a renowned French author was to give a lecture the very next day – we were in a state of panic.
With no one else to turn to at the last minute, I volunteered to take over the role. I remember not being able to sleep that night cramming to translate dozens of esoteric French texts into English!
”at the last minutes”というのは、「土壇場で、ギリギリになってから」という意味。
文字通り、「最後の数分間で…。」って感じなんでしょう。
あと、”esoteric”というのは、「難解な」という意味です。
フランス人作家の講演ですから、そりゃ難しい内容だったんでしょう。
To cut the long story short, the French lecture pushed through; the author didn’t even know of the incident. If not for that overnight translation, the talk wouldn’t even have happen.
Whether in business or private life, I’m convinced that even the smallest choices I make at the moment – like learning something new, sharpening my skills, developing new hobbies, or simply having fun – could have a big impact later on.
I can not say that it would be correctly apply to the example of this question, when I worked for sales department, my company let me go to the accounting school for studying accounting book. At that time, I had no idea to transfer to financial division, but I took the certification because I studied hard about it. Later, when actually I moved to financial department, the knowledge helped a lot for me.
Do you have regrets over not learning or doing something in the past, only to realize that it could have helped you later on, whether in business or in your personal life?
I don’t have special regrets over not learning or doing something in the past, but I think it would have been better for me to start studying English earlier. If I had started studying English earlier, I could have communicated a lot of things with foreign country people. Basically, because I would study if something need for me, I had never regret anything for studying.
A new lesson always heralds new beginnings and if there is ever any truth in the old adage that a great start has a great ending then without question the efforts, responses and expressions you gave today mean that we are going to have a great week. Wonderful efforts Ko! Good morning!
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