A Libyan academic I’d met some ten years back came over to London two years ago to visit her daughter who’s doing her PhD (in translating for subtitles) here. She arranged to meet me for tea, bringing her daughter along to meet me. I saw them again a few days later before she returned to Tripoli.
A few weeks later, I was walking along to the library when a young woman coming from the other direction greeted me in a way that suggested she knew me. I wasn’t quite able to place her, but said hello back, and moved on because I had a Skype lesson to do. It later occurred to me that she must’ve been an ex-student Nicole whom I’d taught in 2008 or 2009.
A few more days on, I got into a Tube train carriage, and there she was again. I sat down next to her, and asked her, “So what are you doing now?” I was thinking of her movements after finishing her first degree.
She said, “I’m doing a PhD.”
I said, “Oh, where and in what?”
She said, “SOAS. Translating for subtitles.”
I said, “Ah!! I know someone who’s doing a PhD at SOAS in translating for subtitles! Maybe you could get together and swap notes!”
She said, “That’s me!” and gave me a strange look.
Oh dear. Oops.
(London, 2019)
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