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Did I overreact about my difficult situation I got in?


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Hello, sorry if this is long, but I really need your input on what follows:

 

I teach and translate as a civilian in a military institution; however I'm only paid for teaching, so kind of overlapping. Over the last three days, my colleague and me had to translate for a seminar with the lowest ranks of the army. On Monday I took over the first session, and at the end of it my colleague suggested that there was no point of me translating everything..It seemed that during her sessions she said more words than the speaker. I know, I tend to translate fast, which may also give the impression that I almost said nothing. Or not emphasize each word I say, as my colleague did..

 

Yesterday, I started the first session as well, and by the end of it, it seemed that I wasn't really understanding the speaker about something, so it took a while before the misunderstanding became clear..During the short break, one of the participants started complaining in a small circle. First I didn't know what he was referring to, then I replied: "What is the problem?" Oh,he said: "You translated the idea wrong,and even on Monday you made mistakes", to which I replied: "Who are you to judge my performance? Do certain not-mentioned details ruin the whole thing?"

 

Today, when I reached the seminar room, my colleague and them had been talking about the incident, her saying to the guy, as well: "Put yourself in our if this is that easy.." I said: "Don't expect me to always translate word for word, or use the same ordering as the speaker.." Another friend of his, to support him, said that my sentences are wrongly formulated. Still, I didn't ask for replacement because it'd seem they were totally right..When I asked him during the break what he meant by that, he added: "Well, you tend to add unnecessarily "Let's say..", which undermines the meaning. When I asked the native presenters about it, they said this did not affect them..

 

I admit that my colleague had a better performance than me because she managed to be more focused - I somehow have shorter-attention span than her- but I didn't do that bad either.

 

Am I wrong, or it seemed to me that the military guys wanted to discredit me in the presence of my colleague? Did my colleague also make the situation worse in trying to "help" me, while saying also I should reacted harder?

Am I right to feel so low now, even though my performance was good, except in some cases?

Edited by Theman12
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Just to add: I included today as well because in my country we are 8 hours ahead of the time at the bottom of the site..

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