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 For many people,
moving into an alien society will bring with it a flurry of problems. Besides the barriers
of language and life style, a profound sense of loneliness tie them down with nostalgia.
But for 50-year-old Rose Chang, from Hong Kong, such feelings come only to enrich her
experience. After more than 27 years of stay in Chennai, she is the only Chinese
interpreter available in the city today. "I owe this profession to my early days in
Chennai, when I sat down to read many Chinese magazines sent to me by our friends. It has
helped me to gain more knowledge," says Rose Chang. She also explains that the
Chinese language is difficult to learn even for the natives, since it has no alphabetical
system and has thousands of pictorial characters. "More over, the language has
different registers for various activities. For example, you may have to learn an
altogether different set of characters if you want to understand how a steel industry
works," she says. To keep her updated on the latest technologies, Rose says that she
would request her friends to send the newspapers and magazines, which they would otherwise
throw into the garbage bins.
It is also curious to know the way Rose had
learnt English. "I am not formally educated in English. But, out of interest, I used
to read my children's textbook and story books to learn the language. After 20 years, of
course, it pays of," she says with a laugh. Rose's impressive clientele include the
TVS group and numerous small scale companies that sprang up in the last five years.
"I started my interpretation as a service. Earlier, people used to bring me addresses
or location details inscribed in Chineseand I used to explain to them without receiving
money. But, I should say that in the last five years, I received more calls from the
industries in Chennai. Nowadays, in and around the city I get at least three to four
assignments a week which is unusual," she says.
Even otherwise, Rose is preoccupied with
other commitments. She looks after her husband's footwear stall in Anna Salai. "My
husband likes me to be with him in the shop to look after the business. Now that, my
children have grown up they help him when I am away for work," she says. Rose points
out that the charges she receives from the companies is to compensate her time away from
her husband's business. "If people come to me for clarifications or to find out
addresses or locations written in Chinese I do that for free. This is because I like
helping people," says Rose. As industrial activity around Chennai intensifies, Rose
believes that more hectic days are ahead. Whether she can manage them or not is a question
and she just keeps her fingers crossed.
L. Subramani
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