About Me

educator, writer, traveler

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Tan helps with bird flu documentary

Tan has a friend who works with the French embassy in Bangkok. She asked Tan to help translate for some French journalists doing a documentary of the bird flu problem in Thailand. Tan accepted the assignment and travelled with the reporting team for five days. They started in Lopburi last week on Thursday. Tan translated the questions and answers for the interviews from Thai to English. The Frenchmen will translate what she said to French for the report. The government told the reporters that this farm had the bird flu last year, but the farmer denied it.

The next day Tan interviewed a Senator at the Parliament building in Bangkok. Then they went to Supanburi to see another farm. On Saturday and Sunday, they went to Kalasin province. Tan said it was like she was in another country. "It felt like I was in Cambodia or Vietnam, because the people were so poor. It didn't feel like Thailand." Tan has grown up in Bangkok, so seeing subsistence farmers is not a familiar sight.

After the work on the documentary ended, the French journalists brought Tan to the AP Regional Headquarters in Bangkok. I'm so jealous, as a journalist. I want to see that place. She was introduced to some big wig over there and they recommended her as a translator. AP called her this week and offered to put her on a list of translators to call for AP news in Thailand. I am so excited for her. God is blessing her so much. Maybe I can get connected too. We'll see.

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