This is the 316th true story of "Self-shooting"
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Li Shuang/oral
Ah Peep/written
Zu Yifei edited
My name is Li Shuang (
Photo taken in Tokyo, I am 37 years old this year, this is my tenth year of coming to Japan.
I was born in the northeast and settled in Tokyo. These two places are only one word different, but the living environment is very different, especially when I was young. My hometown is Li in Kualao Village, Yongji County, Jilin Province, where Surrounded by mountains, surrounded by mountains is boundless fields, with ditches in the ground. In the 1980s, the countryside was not mechanized yet, and farming required us children to walk cat steps on the ridge platform, step out a row of straight footprints, and adults followed behind sow seeds and scattered fertilizers. In a day, two days and three days, the days were repeated, and the ditch seemed to never end.
This was the farmland in my hometown that I took a vacation in 2006.
I don’t know why, but there is always a feeling of time and space intertwined in my memory. I used to have a dream in my hometown, dreaming that our whole family was eating around the table. The language I spoke was completely different from everyone, and no one could understand what I was saying. Sitting on the kang at home , I was ignorant and couldn't help but fantasize: What kind of scenery would you see if you climbed over the mountain outside the window?
My mother always said to me, "It's obviously a maid's life, but I have a lady's body." I don't look like a Northeastern child. I'm thin and white. I don't like farm work. I can't tell the difference between urea and uric acid. When I went to the mountain to pick wild vegetables, I would scream when I saw snakes or insects. My parents always scolded me and said that I wasn't scared by the snakes, but I was shocked by me.
1989, when I was four years old, I was wearing old clothes made by adults by hand.
I was not good at work, but I had a strong desire to go to school. At that time, a teacher would pass by our yard when I went to and from get off work. , I caught the opportunity and chatted with her. Before I reached school age, I was 6 years old and pestered my mother and said she wanted to go to elementary school. My mother ran to the principal and asked me to go to school one year early. As a result, I was retired because I couldn't keep up with the class. When I went there the next year, I was still happy and wanted to stay in school every day.
I have a strong curiosity about knowledge. I posted the book and always wanted to finish it as soon as possible. Every time I saw the head teacher standing on the podium to share knowledge, I felt it was cool, and I slowly developed the dream of being a teacher. My grades were very outstanding in the class, but they were not very popular with the head teacher. Because she had to teach several courses alone, it took ten minutes to finish the get out of class, and I always pestered and asked all kinds of tricky questions, which made people unable to rest.
Primary school fourth grade, I (first from left) and my sister.
1998, when I was about to graduate from elementary school, two major events happened at home. First, on a heavy rainy day, a sudden thunderbolt sounded, and a wall of our earthen tile house collapsed. At that time, my family's income was all about food, and the price was very low. I had to pay agricultural tax , and I couldn't save a lot of money all year round. It costs about 10,000 yuan to buy materials to build a new house. My father borrowed all the relatives around him who could borrow money to keep the place where the family lived.
In winter, my mother's vasculitis is getting worse again. Her hands became cold and white, without a trace of blood. She lay on the kang, wanting to put her fingers behind her back to warm her warmth, but one of her fingers slowly turned purple, as if she had been tied to a rubber band for a long time and caused blood stasis. That night my mother was so painful that she couldn't sleep, so my sister and I had to take turns giving her massage.
Later, I couldn't hold on anymore, so we went to County Hospital . At that time, rural cooperative medical system had not yet been issued, and farmers had to pay full compensation for their medical treatment. For this reason, our family owed another debt. The mother did not improve after treatment for a period of time. The doctor said that she might have to amputate her. When she learned about it, she was very desperate. When she heard a crow shouting outside the window, she started to mutter: "I must have come to pick me up. I'm about to live."
Mother's hand, one of the fingers had gradually become necrotic because of vasculitis.
At that time, I was about to go to junior high school, and my parents wanted me to continue my studies, but my family had already reached the point where I could not get a 100 yuan book fee. Seeing this at home, my mother forced her to be discharged from the hospital and said she would die at home even if she died. She called me to the front and said that if she really died, the last thing she regretted in her life was that she did not let me finish school.
I felt relieved when I heard my mother say this. I also knew that my family had tried their best and we can't blame them if we don't have money. I just felt a deep sense of powerlessness about fate and felt that I would never realize my dream of becoming a teacher in my life. How can I have a primary school degree in this world? can't find a way out, life is dark, and when I pass by the village reservoir, I even want to skip in. But my family was in that situation at that time, and the idea of suicide seemed too luxurious.
My mother lost her workforce and her sister is still young. I naturally have to help my dad share more housework when I dropped out of school. Go up the mountain and dig the ground, and dig it until dark. If I had been afraid before, I would have been dying. In addition to insects and snakes, there were also piles of earthen tombs on the mountain. At that time, I seemed to be numb, without pain, without fear, my brain was blank, and only my limbs were moving mechanically. The villagers were shocked when they saw me, thinking that I was like a different person.
After dropping out of school, I spent two years at home in a daze. During this period, a Korean brother from our village went to South Korea to work and came to visit my mother. The doctor prescribed several packs of medicine and applied it externally for a period of time, but it really worked. Seeing that the condition improved, my mother and my dad didn't want me to stay at home to help. There are only spring and summer to do farm work, and I have nothing to do for the rest of the time. So in 2000, at the age of 15, I embarked on the road to working.
Primary school graduation photo, the third one in the right in the back row is me.
My first job was to work as a waiter in a hot pot restaurant in the town, washing dishes, washing vegetables, and serving dishes. My monthly salary was 180 yuan, but after less than three months of work, the boss quit me because he was "not able to see me." Not long after, I went to a self-service hot pot barbecue restaurant in the county town. There was no fixed get off work time. When the guests left in the evening, we put together a few chairs, put on mattresses and quilts to sleep. It was dawn in the morning, and I kicked my shoes on my feet and started working again.
In the winter of minus 30 degrees northeast, the seafood had to be washed with cold water. The back of my hands was swollen into steamed buns, and my fingers began to ulcerate. I called my family and told me that I was frostbite and wanted to go home. My mother asked me to wait for another two months before leaving for the Chinese New Year. Later, she went to the county town to buy New Year's goods and saw me. After my hands were exposed from the rubber gloves, tears instantly poured out, asking me to quit my job immediately and go home.
The first year I went out to work and went home to celebrate the Spring Festival. I was on the far right.
I stayed at home for two months, and wiped my hands with white wine soaked with cherries according to folk remedies. After the injury was healed, I came out to work again. It was a 24-hour porridge shop. I worked alone for 72 hours. When there were no customers, I lay on the table for a while. When the guests arrived, they immediately got up and worked hard, and supported them with dizziness. One day, when I was working, I suddenly started bleeding from and , so I quickly took a tissue to block it. The tissues we usually use for customers are folded and placed in a paper case as big as a box of instant noodles. I used up all the tissues inside, but the blood has not stopped. I could only tilt my head and let the blood flow back into my mouth and spit it out.
The boss was frightened after seeing it and said he wanted to take me to see a doctor. I will never go, and I thought to myself: If you pay, I will go. If you don’t pay, I may have to pay for my monthly salary! still didn't go to the end. When I quit my job and left the store, the boss owed me two months of salary and didn't pay it. Because there is no labor contract , I can’t get it back even if I want to ask for the salary, so I can only admit that I’m unlucky.
Then I went to a slightly higher-end store with a basic salary of 500 plus commission. Before the probation period was over, a distant relative came to me and said that he had opened a dance hall with someone else, asking me to go to the bar to keep accounts and do some warehouse management work. I didn't think I'd been a waiter for a long time, so I quit.Although I had no experience, I got it very quickly and I almost never made any mistakes in ordering the goods. I felt that it was much more interesting than being a waiter.
When I was working in a dance hall, my hair had been left for eight years and I hadn't cut it. It was very eye-catching when I walked on the road.
The sound engineer in the store takes good care of me. If anyone dares to bully me, he will be with others. Among the boys in the dance hall, he is the most attractive. He orders songs in karaoke. As long as he enters a number, he doesn't even need to read the catalogue, and he knows which disc it is. At the age of 17, I started my first love in a daze. However, not long after being with him, he broke up on the grounds that I was too ignorant and said that I would be together for two years. Unexpectedly, two years later, he tricked me into a pyramid scheme den in Guangzhou.
At that time, I was doing wine sales in Changchun, and I rode a bicycle through the streets and alleys every day. Because I am young, the ignorant is fearless. No matter whether it is a small company or a big company, I will directly ask for the boss when I go in. The receptionist is confused and asked me if I have an appointment? I said no, if the boss is not there, I will sit there and wait until he comes back. With this shamelessness, I did a pretty good job in sales.
One day I suddenly received a call from my first love. He said that he had a car accident when working in Guangzhou and had no one to take care of him. He ate instant noodles every day and became skinny and bone-skinned. I couldn't bear it and quit my job and took the train to Guangzhou for 36 hours. When we met, he didn't have a car accident at all, but he was indeed so thin that he was almost losing face, which was completely different from what he looked like in his memory.
First love took me to a place where everyone there slept in the big bunk bed and drank cabbage soup . Teachers teach every day and brainwash them, and everyone is full of fighting spirit. However, no matter how nice they speak, I know it is useless. There is not even a product. How can I make money? They asked me to introduce my friend over, but I refused and asked to leave within a few days. Fortunately, this is not the kind of pyramid scheme in the Northern School that deducts ID cards and restricts personal freedom. I am very glad that I was not tied up.
After coming out of the pyramid scheme den, I contacted a brother I met on the train before. He said that he came to Guangzhou to work as a chef. I thought I might be able to introduce me to their store as a waiter, so that at least there is a place to stay. After I went there, I realized that he was not a chef at all, but a pimp who took the little girl to a hotel for illegal activities. He didn't plan to kidnap me, but I didn't expect that I would fall into the trap.
When I was young, I was extroverted and loved to talk and it was easy to trust others.
and their group kept brainwashing me, saying that it was easy to make money in this industry and that you could buy a car and a house soon. I disagree, so they let me live here for a while and learn about it slowly. I knew that my menstruation was not adjusted by , so I bought me some Chinese medicine to regulate my body. One night, the foreman suddenly wanted to take me and a group of exposed girls to the hotel, and each room was for the guests to choose from. This scene scared me. Fortunately, I was dressed up relatively rustic and no customer had a fancy to me all night.
The next day they asked me to go, but I decided not to go. The foreman said that you are here to eat and live, and you will also give you Chinese medicine, so you will have to earn 2,000 yuan before leaving. Fortunately, they didn't scold me or beat me, or did anything to me. I said I couldn't make the money, so they threatened to sell me to other pimps.
At this time, I had to use my childhood ability to "cry" and cried out in the dark every day. I thought that if I really couldn't get out, I might as well just commit suicide. Anyway, I'll die sooner or later. Unexpectedly, one day, they didn't lock the door when they went out for dinner. I don't know if they forgot it or the brother I met on the train who was soft-hearted and left the door for me. Anyway, I escaped without any danger.
At that time, my sister also dropped out of school and went to work. She worked as a waiter in an Korean cuisine store in Shenzhen. I decided to go and join her. In Shenzhen in 2002, Mandarin was not popular yet. Locals say Cantonese . I can’t understand a word, it’s like I’m in a foreign country and can’t find a sense of belonging. I finally applied for a job at the front desk of a restaurant, but after working for three or four days, I was fired because I had difficulty communicating with the customer.
I sat on the side of the road and cried for a long time. When I was desperate, I found that there was a Japanese restaurant that was about to open and was in a hurry to recruit people. I didn't have any hope when I went in, and told my boss dejectedly that I didn't know Cantonese. The boss said no, as long as you can speak Japanese. I asked what Japanese is? The boss waved his hand and said, "It's okay, we will teach you, and you will also provide food and accommodation. Come on."
In this way, I began to have a fate with Japanese. Every day before opening business, everyone has to get together and listen to the boss’s teaching us that we welcome you. You may be fined if you can’t remember it. In the first three months, I was very resistant and in order not to be fined, I could only forcefully use the pronunciation of Chinese characters to remember. Three months later, I noticed that the Chinese characters in Japanese are marked with kana, which is equivalent to the pinyin in Chinese. If you can pronounce kana, you can issue all Japanese pronunciations. After realizing this, I seemed to have opened up the Ren Du meridians , and I have become more and more confident in learning Japanese .
18 photos taken in Shenzhen when I was about 18 years old. After I arrived in the south, I, a native of Northeast China, finally put on a skirt for the first time during the Spring Festival.
I knew that learning Japanese well might have a better development, so I signed up for a special Japanese class, which was twice a week, and I took two hours each time. I learned standard Japanese junior level. Only then did I realize that nouns, verbs, and adjectives in Japanese have tense changes, and these changes have rules to follow. As long as I remember the rules and give me a new word or sentence, I can use them. This makes me very interesting. I will try my best to use the contents of
in class. Many Japanese customers who come to the store to have dinner work alone in China, and are relatively empty, and are happy to chat with people like me with carefree personality. Although I am not fluent in what I want to express, I will boldly say what I want to express. It doesn’t matter if I say the wrong ones, but he will correct it after laughing. This is a great gain for me.
This is a screenshot of my recent online class. At that time, I liked to learn grammar very much, and now I like to talk about grammar very much.
When I stayed in a Japanese restaurant for more than a year, I finally paid off my family’s debt. My parents have always regretted that I had never been to college. At that time, a distant relative worked in an enrollment work at a private university in Beijing. When he heard that I was learning Japanese, he encouraged my mother to ask me to go to their school. I was wondering why I could go to college if I didn’t even go to junior high school? He said it was OK, and anyone could pay it. After hearing what he said, I went there with anticipation after paying the tuition.
Before leaving, the Japanese guests I knew even held a gift party for me. They bought a cake and asked me to study hard, saying that after I came back, I could go to their factory to do translation. A Japanese uncle I met in a restaurant before, and later gave me a lot of funding, helping me recharge my phone bill, buy air tickets, send shampoo, milk powder, comic book to my school, and bought me a lot of clothes suitable for students to wear, just wanting to help me.
This is the Japanese uncle who helped me. We are 33 years apart. This is a photo of us reuniting after we know each other for ten years.
result disappoints. In this so-called university, the Japanese taught by teachers is very simple, and their spoken language is not even better than mine. It costs a lot of money to spend three years here, but what you get in the end is not a nationally recognized education. I felt like a waste of time, so I dropped out of school and returned to Shenzhen after staying for four months. Two months later, I went to a Japanese school in Heilongjiang with an introduction. There is full-day teaching, the tuition fee is cheap, and the teaching is quite good.
After the summer vacation of the first semester, I took the train to Shanghai, where I had longed for a long time. I first worked in a Japanese restaurant in Shanghai, and also applied for some resumes to apply for translators. Unexpectedly, a few days after the investment, I received a call from a Taiwanese company notified of an interview. I quit my job at the restaurant without hesitation and went for an interview. I was not particularly good at Japanese at that time, but the interviewer said that I saw tenacity in my eyes and made an exception to admit me.
This company often imports Japanese precision machines. My job is to translate for Japanese debuggers in a clean room.Every time I go in, I have to wear dust-free clothing, disinfect, and take it off when I come out. Moreover, the professional terms for various machine parts are really not within my interests. I have been in class for more than a month and the school is about to start, so I told my boss truthfully that I still want to continue studying and try my best to get the Japanese Level 2 exam.
That year, I got 375 points in the second grade (out of 400 points), and also applied for the Practical Japanese language appraisal exam. Compared with written Japanese, I was better at Practical Japanese, so I got better. The full score was 1,000 points, and I got 805 points. Our school is the only test site in Jixi City . The principal can see the results of all candidates. Afterwards, according to the principal, my score ranked first in Jixi .
After graduation, I was in a hurry to find a job, because my sister also wanted to learn Japanese, so I had to pay her tuition, so I returned to Shenzhen and went to the Japanese boss I knew before to work as a restaurant manager.
2008, I passed the shortage talent training project in Shanghai and obtained the "Japanese Intermediate Interpretation" certificate.
The second month of working, a Japanese friend asked me for dinner. At the dinner table, he shouted loudly, "You go to learn Japanese, you are learning so well, is your purpose to continue working in the restaurant? Do you have no life plan?" I told him my difficulties and he directly lent me 2,000 yuan to help me solve my sister's tuition fee problem. Soon, I left the restaurant and applied for a job as an interpreter in a clothing factory. Unexpectedly, this job hit me hard.
The assembly line workers in the factory work hard and their salary is not good. A new leader from Japan said he wanted to improve everyone's working environment. I accompanied him to inspect the factory every day and asked about the ideas and opinions of each worker. The leader made various commitments passionately, giving everyone unlimited hope. As a result, a month later, he slapped him in the face and said he was helpless about the factory and planned to return to Japan. The leader left, but all the promises were gone. After all, those words were translated by me, and I felt that they were particularly shameless to face the workers.
When I first arrived in Shanghai, I was wearing clothes I bought for 30 yuan from Qipu Road.
Leaving the factory, I ran to Shanghai alone. At this time, my resume had changed from elementary school to Japanese vocational school , but that was not a regular university after all, and it was difficult to enter a Japanese company. In most cases, I didn’t even have an interview opportunity, so I had to find another job in a restaurant to make a living first. A Japanese guest in the restaurant
was surprised at how good my Japanese was. He heard that I passed the second level and recommended me to go to their company. After that, I started working in the company during the day and working in the restaurant at night. Maybe it’s because of my personality. Sitting in the office is boring for me. In addition, I lack sleep, so I often doze off during the day. When my boss finds out, he will be mad at me and asks me to go home to sleep.
During that time, a Japanese grandfather from a restaurant asked me to teach him Chinese, but I refused at the beginning. After all, I haven’t read many books and I almost forgot the pinyin. How can I teach others? He kept inviting me sincerely, saying that he would give me 100 yuan for an hour and a half, and treat me to dinner. I teach once a Saturday and ask me if I’m not losing money, right? Speaking of this, I can't refuse anymore.
At the beginning, it was not so much that I taught him, but rather that he taught me how to teach him. He put the pinyin card of the child's word recognition on the wall, asked me to teach it to the card, and also suggested that I could take more jobs like this, which was much more cost-effective than working. I thought it made sense, so I went to the Japanese newspaper to publish a small advertisement. Gradually, part-time jobs took more and more time, so I simply quit my job in the company and taught Japanese Chinese full-time.
Being a teacher in Shanghai, this is when a Japanese student gave me flowers at a party.
I was really working hard in those years. At most, I could take 10 hours of classes a day. I taught white-collar workers in the company at 6:30 in the morning. They went to work and taught those Japanese wives, all-day students in the afternoon, and Japanese employees after get off work at night... I was so busy that I didn’t even have time to sit down and have to eat hamburgers while rushing to the road.Once, I fainted directly on the elevator. The Japanese company employee next to me took me to the hospital. Not long after, I couldn't even speak, my throat became inflamed, and my ears were tingling. It took about 1,500 yuan to get a drip and take medicine to cure .
Whether it is hard work or hard, the rewards are also gratifying. In 2008, at the age of 23, I had already earned 70,000 to 80,000 a month, and I also bought a house with a loan from Huaqiao , which junctions Shanghai and Suzhou . At that time, the price was not expensive because the subway was not opened. The total price of a 98-square-meter house was 510,000 yuan. Of course, what is more important than material returns is that my dream of being a teacher when I was a child was realized in another form.
But in terms of love, I was greatly frustrated later. In 2009, I met a Japanese student I met at a Japanese restaurant when I first arrived in Shanghai. He often calls me late at night, goes to Hangzhou to play and asks me to relax on West Lake . He has a very good appearance and is 1.8 meters tall, which is very consistent with my aesthetic taste. I can take care of people, cook and massage the soles of my feet. I have been wandering outside for many years and I really want to get married. After half a year of dating, we got married.
This man’s family conditions are very average in Japan, and I didn’t ask for a penny of betrothal gift. In early 2010, because he had not graduated from studying in China, I flew to Japan alone for pregnancy tests. Because the cervix is relatively short, there is a possibility of miscarriage at any time, so I have to stay at his house to raise my baby.
In 2010, I raised my baby at my husband's house in Japan.
For two months, I don’t have a computer or smartphone, and I can’t adjust the station when watching TV, otherwise his 80s-year-old grandma would be angry. I was very uncomfortable with eating it. I could hardly find a meal except for , spicy cabbage, and . When my husband graduated, I seemed to finally catch a life-saving straw. Seeing his figure from afar, I couldn't help but run towards him, and tears came out as soon as I hugged him.
In less than a month, my cervix shortened became more serious. When I went to the pregnancy test, I was directly detained by the doctor and pushed it into the hospital ward with a wheelchair. For the next month, I was burying the needle every day, and the needle had to be buried in the skin for more than 48 hours. If the needle lips were red and swollen, then bury it again. My husband occasionally came to see me, not only did he not feel my pain, but he also always said he wanted to change it with me because I was lying all day long, but he had to cheer up and work.
After finally giving birth, I went to the maternal and infant forum and saw that many people were interested in Japanese products. At that time, someone in the hospital promoted milk powder, and the price was quite good, so I started to buy on behalf of others and asked my husband to pay for milk powder. He said that when you are discharged from the hospital, remember to pay me back the milk powder. I was holding the child and feeding him, and tears fell on the child's face when I heard this. When I think of him often laughing at me as a "money-eating bug", I feel that life is too frustrating and I am determined to take my children back to China.
I tortured me every day.
One night after being discharged from the hospital, my husband got drunk and yelled in front of me in front of the guest. His father patted his shoulder and said that he was doing well. The next day I took my child to the city government and consulted them about the divorce of international marriage. When the staff saw that the child was so young, they asked me if I had experienced domestic violence. I said no. The staff asked me if I had encountered language violence . When I heard it, tears fell down. It was the first time in that anyone cared about my true feelings.
On March 7, 2011, after getting divorced, I took a plane back to China. Before leaving, I wanted to take a look at my daughter, but they lied to me that the baby was at the house of grandma in Fukushima . Four days later, the Fukushima earthquake was shaking. I saw the news and collapsed on the ground. I couldn't contact their house by phone. I was almost collapsed and I entered a state of out-of-body out of my body. even though I later found out that it was a false alarm, I still couldn't erase the harm this incident had done to me.
The custody of the eldest daughter belongs to the ex-husband, and I can visit it once a month now.
After returning to China for almost half a year, I ate, slept and ate every day in my hometown, and lost my enthusiasm for life. Later, my parents said that this would not work, you must go out to work.In September 2011, my mother accompanied me back to Shanghai and I became a Japanese Chinese teacher again. A year later, with my concern for my daughter, I decided to return to Japan.
However, after waiting for eight months, my long-term visa was not approved, and I didn’t want to get married just because I had to quit my job and start a business and raised 5 million yen to apply for a business management visa. With a legal person, I have to have business and turnover. I attend various parties during the day, post business cards to promote myself, and publish Japanese articles on the Internet at night. Seeing that I express my Japanese very well, I began to introduce some translation work to me one after another.
Not long after, I got a chance to go on a business trip with my client to Malaysia through my friend's introduction. When they came to me, they did not determine the scope and attributes of the translation. After I went there, I did a lot of instant translation of online chat groups, contract document translation, conference negotiation interpretation, etc. I had no idea that I would also do simultaneous interpretation . The people on the stage kept saying, "I kept chasing and translating, and I couldn't even doze at all."
When I arrived at the scene, they gave me a microphone. Whatever the person on the top said, I asked me to say it at the same time below. The scene was extremely noisy and the speaker was deafening. I could only cover the microphone and yelled loudly. I translated it alone for eight hours. At the end, my mind was completely out of reach and I didn’t have the energy to walk. I wanted to climb back to the hotel immediately with my shoes. The customer said he wanted to take me to have a lobster meal. I said, please spare me and let me rest. I was actually very dissatisfied with the translation of
. I didn’t keep up with the first time I did a simultaneous interpretation. I didn’t expect that the customer feedback was very good. He said that the Japanese employees had never understood the boss’s speech before. The Malaysian boss had a strong accent. The translations he hired before could not be conducted at the same time. They talked on it for eight hours, and the translation could only condense the central idea. So this is the first time they have deepened their trust in the company because I learned about my boss’s life experience and behavior, which makes me feel very accomplished.
Since 2014, my translation work has gradually increased.
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Everything is difficult at the beginning, and only when you start will you have the opportunity to correct and improve. After , I took on many simultaneous interpretations in the hands of this client. In order to improve the speed, I usually choose some Japanese videos with very fast speaking speeds for practice. After speed and reaction, vocabulary is the key to determining the accuracy of translation, so I usually insist on reading a lot and accumulate it continuously.
In the next few years, I received some on-site interpretation work through customer introductions and online order acceptance methods. When I was translating the press conference for Jiaduobao to settle in Japan, I had the honor to partner with Japanese artist Takuya Komatsu. Later, with his recommendation, I got the opportunity to serve as a bilingual host for Tokyo Film Festival . There are many Chinese films participating in this film festival, and many Chinese celebrities and filmmakers participating in it. Compared with Japanese translators who can speak Chinese, the organizers are more willing to find Chinese translators like me who can speak Japanese.
This is the scene where I have done the most preparation work, because it would be a bit strange to translate many honorifics into Chinese directly. I spent a lot of effort to find appropriate and polite statements. For example, "Let's invite someone to applause" is much more natural than literally translated as "please applause". I wasn't nervous when I was formally hosting. I would also be smart when I performed on the spot. Many celebrities present were amused by me.
The vice venue of the Tokyo Film Festival, I (second from right) and Japanese actor Takuya Komatsu (middle).
It’s really dreamy to think about it. A few years ago, I was an ordinary audience who watched the Tokyo Film Festival, but now I have the opportunity to stand on such a stage. Shortly after the film festival ended, my reputation in the industry expanded, and my income continued to rise. Translation can earn about 10,000 yen in an hour, which is equivalent to about 600 yuan. The average income in a month is 500,000 yen, which is about 30,000 yuan. In 2018, I also bought a house worth 30 million yen (about 1.8 million yuan) in Tokyo.
After settled in Japan, I noticed that many children of Chinese in Japan would not say a single Chinese sentence when they grew up because they lacked the Chinese language environment. In order to give them a good environment to learn Chinese, I am ambitiously opening a Chinese book garden that integrates reading, language teaching, and cultural activities, and also organizes some activities to promote China-Japan friendship from time to time.
The new boyfriend at that time was very opposed to me doing this. He said that his idea was good, but he had no profit at all. As he expected, the shareholders who invested in me found it difficult to make a quick profit in Shuyuan, they put pressure on me and suggested that I transform into selling pearl milk tea . I don’t want to compromise, and the shareholders’ dissatisfaction is getting more and more.
Shuyuan opening ceremony.
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At that time, I was so anxious that I only slept for two or three hours every day. Big chickenpox broke out on my forehead. My spirit gradually collapsed. After going to the hospital for treatment for a period of time, the shareholders asked to terminate the contract and withdraw their investment. In fact, I don’t need to return it to them according to the contract, because investment is naturally risky, but I still chose to sell my domestic house and returned all the investment part of the shareholders intact, and bear the losses alone.
2019 is the worst year for me. I heard from customers that my condition was not as good as before. I felt very guilty. In October, I returned to China to recuperate. My parents told me that you should not do anything and just sleep well. At that time, I really couldn't get excited to do anything and lay on the sofa all day long. Because my boyfriend broke up with me because he insisted on starting a business, and my best friend who came to help me manage the store also had a fight with me once.
By the end of the year, the epidemic began. Every day I see someone die in the news, some people can’t find a job, and have difficulty surviving. I gradually realize that it is a very lucky thing to be able to live well.
In June 2020 in Shanghai, my best friend and I took my kid out to play.
Before, I heard of a festival called "Tianshe Day" in Japan - the day God forgives everyone. Later, I found that there is a similar saying among the Chinese people. It happened that June 20 that year was Tianshe Day, and the weather was very good, so my best friend and I took my children to the park. The forest is green, the sky is clear, and the sun shines through the gaps between the leaves, everything is so beautiful. I haven't felt this way for a long time, as if I don't have to do anything, and living is the meaning itself.
After recovering from the failure of entrepreneurship, I began to do online courses at home. Because I was interested in program recording, I also applied for a job in the variety show "Creation Camp" to serve as their resident Japanese interpreter and subtitle translator. I often stayed up late during that time, but during the close contact with those young idols, I was also infected by their vitality and saw the infinite possibilities of the future in them.
2021 New Year’s Eve, the translation team of Creation Camp had a dinner.
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translation is a job that can reflect your professional value. However, if I don’t consider my income, I actually enjoy being a teacher more, enjoying the feeling of being able to interact with students and being needed by them. Now more and more students want to learn Japanese from me. With the work of translation and interpretation, I have returned to a fulfilling rhythm of life. Last year, CATTI (International Chinese General Translation Ability Test) began to be recognized in Japan and could take the exam directly in Japan, so I went to take the exam and got an A score in the interpreting part, which was a little higher than the highest score in Japan last year.
Now, my hourly translation fee has increased to 30,000 yen, which is about 1,500 yuan per hour. There are more than 10 classes online and online for students who learn Japanese from me. The courses are already full every day, and there are many translators and interpreters to take orders. Together, my income has exceeded that of most office workers of the same age. It is a high-paying job.
I dropped out of school because I didn’t have money, so I usually encountered various online donations and couldn’t help but want to get some salary to help. I have donated tens of thousands of yuan in the past few years.When I belong to a vulnerable group, I accept help and give, and when I have some ability, I also help and give. I think this positive cycle is very important.
This is my two daughters, and within the next year, I plan to reorganize my family with my new partner.
Although I am no longer young and have divorced and taken care of my children, I feel that I am the happiest person in the world. I always believe in the power of love and I believe that I will become stronger and stronger. This is very similar to one of my discoveries in planting flowers and grasses - when flowers and plants are very young, bugs can eliminate them in just a few minutes. When they grow strong, it doesn't matter if the insects chew around.
I used to be very young, and I walked step by step from the northeast rural area to Tokyo, Japan. I have suffered a lot in this process. Because of these precious experiences, I live more calmly and contentedly as I am now.
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#Self-take my story#Self-take my story [This set of pictures and texts are exclusively released on today's headlines, reprinting is strictly prohibited] or above is the real experience shared by @Simultaneous Chinese and Japanese Li Shuang in Tokyo . This is also the true story of Issue 316 in selfies. If you want to tell your own story, please send a "private message" to tell "selfie". If you like the "Self-Photo" story, click "···" [Appreciation] in the upper right corner.
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