Once you stopped keeping your journal, it would be hard to restart it...
That is what I feel sometimes since I opened this blog. (Then, it's been four years! Yeah!!)
How have I been doing since my last article?
I've been good! To make a long story short, I've been job-hunting as a bilingual emcee. I've decided an emcee agency I belong to, and now I've been receiving training for my debut.
When I started my job-hunting, I called my emcee friends to ask their advice.
After that, I contacted some "bilingual emcee agencies." But they said, "We are not hiring right now." or " We don't send emcees, so you wouldn't get a job here."
I found out, so-called "bilingual emcees" are freelancers, don't belong to agencies.
Some peopled advised me to be a freelancer and advertise my skills by myself.
But I was afraid not to belong an agency cause I don't have any experience as a professional bilingual emcee!
I found one bridal emcee agency saying, "bilingual emcees are desirable."
Let's say, that was "Office A." I went to the interview.
I needed to demonstrate the whole wedding reception emceeing in Japanese, and the party emceeing in English, which I did at the Toastmasters.
The interview venue was a big meeting room. I demonstrated an imaginary wedding and an English party, without microphone, for a half hour. The interviewers were a male president and a female chief emcee(let's say, "Madame M.") Even though I was emceeing delightful parties, they didn't smile at all, neither clap their hands.
After my demonstrations, they gave me harsh comments. They said I needed to receive training for Japanese wedding emceeing, and bilingual emceeing, too.
During the interview, they remained arrogant & didn't ask me "do you have any questions?" at all.
I was disappointed. I was a professional wedding emcee (in Japanese) before, but they said I needed to start over from "a trainee."(not exactly, but a kind of.)
A few days later, I received discount tickets for the training from Office A.
But, I was anxious about they didn't say the details of my future job, like the party venues, my performance fee...
I was such a coward that I couldn't ask the details in the interview's severe atmosphere.
But, I remembered when I chose my first wedding emcee agency. It was almost ten years ago. I visited several emcee agencies, met every president, and asked them where I could work and how I could be a professional emcee.
I mustered my courage to send e-mail & call Miss M (the interviewer,) and ask to answer my questions. But, Miss M was very reluctant to see me again and didn't answer my questions at all.
My distrust for Office A had increased. They said they had tons of jobs, but why didn't they give me specific examples? Why didn't they tell me how much I could get paid?
During the depressing negotiation with Office A, I met a wonderful emcee.
She is Ryoko Sumitomo, a sort of pioneer of a bilingual emcee.
She opened a "bilingual emcee training course," and I joined the course.
She said to me, "You are a respectable grown-up emcee. Why didn't they answer your professional questions? That's ridiculous! Find an agent you can communicate with. If they welcome who you are, you could belong the agency for a long time."
I had a lecture for international wedding emceeing from her, and the class made my vague image of "what a bilingual emcee is"clear.
I thought a bilingual emcee was the one who ran the event in two languages...but not only that.
I need to give audience summaries of speeches. Yes, a bilingual emcee is also a translator.
Additionally, Ryoko said she was happy to translate private talks among bride's family and groom's family (in the case of international wedding.)
So, the job of a bilingual emcee would be very intense!!
However, at the class, I received earnest training. Ryoko said, "Keiko, what you don't have is just experience! Do the job as a professional! Your Japanese emceeing is good, your English pronunciation is beautiful, and you can translate both languages smoothly. Nothing to worry about!"
Can you imagine how she made me happy?
Having Ryoko's advise, I kicked off the Office A's offer, and had an interview of Office R.
One of my emcee friends, Nozomi told me about her favorite wedding emcee blogger, and Office R is the agent she belongs to.
Office R said, "We welcome you, especially, if you can speak English fluently!" on their Web-site.
I did the same demonstrations (weeding emceeings in Japanese, and English-Japanese) there, but the reaction was completely different from Office A.
Probably, it's because I got used to emcee interviews, and the Office R's atmosphere was very friendly.
Also, thanks to Ryoko Sumitomo, my emceeing had been brushed up.
The president of Office R said, "We really needed someone like you. You are fluent in English, and I like your personality. Please belong exclusively to our agency."
Now, I go to Office R once a week and take private training from a professional announcer.
By the way, speaking of the harsh & fishy (sorry) emcee office, Office A's chief emcee, Miss M...
I met her after I rejected her offer;)
While my job-hunting, I applied to be a member of Bridal Emcee Alliance.
The organization is a kind of labor union of professional emcees. They held an annual conference last Tuesday.
I knew Miss M was also a member of the alliance. She might come there too, even though I didn't want to meet her again... but I couldn't stop going the big conference.
At the venue, there were almost 70 professional emcees... I tried to spot her, but I didn't find.
"Yes! She must be too busy to come here!"
However, after five minutes the conference started, one lady sneaked into the venue, and took a seat just before me... That was exactly, Miss M!!!
She looked back without any intentions, so immediately, I bowed deeply to her, saying, "Nice to meet you again. Thank you very much for everything.(その節は大変お世話になりました。）" in a very Japanese style.
Miss M instantly said, "You're welcome, " then, she started to gaze the attendance list.
Apparently, she didn't recognize me (my hair style and clothes were different,) & tried to remember who I was.
During the interval at the conference, Miss M talked to me, "Ms Ohashi! Nice to meet you again! So, which emcee agent you decided to belong to?"
...I chatted with her a little bit in a sociable manner, hiding my real feeling, "Who wants to belong to your agency? Tell me!!"...
I will be working an wedding emcee & bilingual emcee soon.
My dream, "working as an English teacher on weekdays & a bilingual emcee on weekends" is coming true! I suspended chasing my dream because of my medical treatment, but...the time has ripen.
I can't wait to go my emcee spot, but I need to brush up my language skills...especially, not to be redundant!!
Thank you very much for reading my loooong article!!
