My first interpreting job, as a Year 3 undergrad student, was helping out at a technical training course in Lancashire.
A team of four mainland Chinese people had come over from 南通 (Nántōng, near Shanghai) to learn how to fix minor breakdowns in the textile machinery they'd purchased from the British company in Accrington.
Their contract entitled them to free maintenance and repairs from the British side, but they were far-sighted and said they wanted to fix the minor faults themselves, rather than sit around waiting for the British engineer to get out there. (This entailed a whole chain of actions: identifying the fault, then making the phone call [with the time difference to negotiate, not to mention finding an interpreter for it] to report the fault for the right engineer to be sent out, then waiting for the engineer to apply for and obtain a visa, buy a plane ticket, then catch the flight out, which would be too much precious time for them to be downing tools and hanging around, unable to do any work.)
After the initial introductions were made at the airport upon their arrival, I said to them that I knew nothing about textile machinery, but had bought a dictionary for it, asking them to be patient with me.
They immediately said, "That's no problem. We're all engineers, so we'd know what's happening when we see the inside of the machines. 你是自己人 (nǐ shì zìjǐrén / You're one of us), we'll help you out on the technical side, don't worry."
I was very touched by that, as I was being paid* to do the job.
* £19/day (hourly rates for a telex operator at the time were something like £2/hour)
(Accrington, Lancashire, England, 1979)
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