Listening

Ever since my student days, and increasingly so during my long sojourn overseas amid cultures unlike my own, I have been striving to understand how others perceive, feel, and think. Working as an interpreter in various situations (courts, hospitals, welfare agencies) demands skills in both listening and observation, as well as a high degree of cultural and interpersonal sensitivity. Sympathy, patience, and flexibility enhance these capabilities, especially in my role as husband, spiritual mentor, and father to six children. I respect people’s confidences, encourage them to be open with me and honest with themselves, and seek to incorporate their world-views into mine.

Respect for the Written Word

Due to my own love of reading, together with good practical training in secondary school, I acquired the fundamentals of a strong, polished style. My powers in prose writing have rarely been put to the test in the copywriting and translation work that I have done over the past 15 or more years, but such employment has, at least, reinforced my ability to produce clear, correct, and concise English in advertising, public relations, and corporate communications. I am frequently called upon to revise the work of other translators and writers on account of poor word choice and faulty sentence construction, not to mention matters of grammar and spelling. As for editing, my own self-published work, Wondering into Thai Culture, shows that I can discriminate between mere verbiage and solid substance. I went on to express that substance ─ the insights of over 10 years ─ in resonant, fluent, and playful language. I enjoy wit and wordplay, amply demonstrated in my essays and poetry.

Management

Management was not something I set out to learn, but came to me gradually as an outgrowth of common sense and voluminous, varied experience. After working for others for many years in Thailand, I realized that I would be better off running my own business, and proceeded to do so. Reaching across barriers of culture, language, and personal background, I was able to build up my own client base and hire a local assistant who is, after 15 years, still working with me, even though I have been away from Thailand for 11 years. The habits of accountability, independence, and sound organization that I shared with him during 1994-98 remain with him until today; consequently, my Bangkok-based business remains intact. I should add that raising a family of six children and serving as a mentor to friends younger than myself has also developed in me valuable skills of sensitivity, circumspection, perseverance, and openness I would not otherwise have learned.