A Caribbean Interpreter's Tale: Language, Career, and Resilience with Gennike Mayers

Can you imagine uprooting your life in pursuit of language and culture, only to find yourself aiding in disaster-stricken Haiti? In this riveting episode of Brand the Interpreter, we sit down with Gennike Mayers, a multilingual language professional whose journey spans from the sugarcane fields of Trinidad to the serene shores of Tobago. Gennike's linguistic prowess in English, French, Spanish, and Haitian Creole has not only fueled her career as an interpreter but also as an author, speaker, and CEO. Listen as she recounts her formative years in Trinidad and her deployment during the catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Haiti, sharing how these experiences have shaped her professional and personal life.

Follow Gennike's academic and professional trajectory, ignited by a childhood fascination with her aunt's jet-setting life as a flight attendant. From her studies at the University of the West Indies to an unexpected opportunity in Martinique, Gennike's story is a testament to the unpredictable nature of following one's passion. Discover how her language skills have opened doors to various career paths, from teaching in Martinique to facilitating political integration in the French Caribbean. Supported by her family and guided by insightful mentors, Gennike's journey underlines the importance of embracing one's interests and the serendipity of career opportunities.

Uncover the nuances of Genike's professional endeavors, where she transitioned from an untrained interpreter to a seasoned professional who emphasizes the significance of booth etiquette and commitment. Hear about her role in bridging cultural gaps, her time in the interpreting booth, and the importance of relationships over status. Gennike’s story is a powerful reminder that personal connections and professional dedication can lead to extraordinary opportunities, making this episode a treasure trove of insights for language professionals and enthusiasts alike. Join us to explore the profound impact of linguistic skills in our interconnected world.

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Thanks for tuning in, till next time! 👋

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:35

Welcome to Brand the Interpreter. The podcast for language professionals around the world.

Speaker 2: 0:41

It's about time. By the way, it's 75 years. I've been the same old, same old, day in and day out.

Speaker 1: 0:46

There was the Bernie Sanders event, where we both interpreted from behind the bar.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Wait, really I say go for it.

Speaker 1: 0:56

I second that your new drive time podcast Brand the Inter. Second that your new Drive Time podcast Brand the interpreter. Your stories are profession. Hey, thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 2: 1:07

But the meeting went over time and she protested very vehemently that she was not going on over time and she just got up and left the booth and I was there by myself and I'm like I can't leave. I mean these, these people need me. So I stayed in the booth again, not knowing what I was doing, but I was committed to, you know, going till the end of the meeting because these people needed me. You know, I was their bridge. How? How were they going to communicate without me? Not that it was about me, but I just felt a sense of duty that, regardless of this you know mature interpreter, who actually knew what she was doing, she left, but I felt so terrible I just stayed.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Brand the Interpreter podcast. This is your host, mireya Perez. Thanks for joining me today. I really appreciate you being here with me to listen to the story of yet another great language professional. And today our guest is joining us all the way from Trinidad. But before we jump into her language professional story, I wanted to share a little story with you.

Speaker 1: 2:25

So the other day I was having a conversation with my 12-year-old son, who from time to time likes to act like my mini media manager, and he asked me a question that I honestly had no direct answer to. It made me think. So here's what he asked me, and then I'll tell you what he said about it. He said, mama, what do you call your listeners? What do you mean? I said he's like you know, when you talk to them on your podcast, how do you greet them? I say, hello, language professionals. Is that what you mean? And here's where his little mini media manager skills kicked in. He said, mama, all content creators have a name for their community. Usually it's related to their brand. Language professionals is too long, well then. So now here I am, four years later into the podcast, and I'm having to think about how to refer to my community of brand the interpreter listeners. I thought at that time at the podcast, and I'm having to think about how to refer to my community of Brandy interpreter listeners. I thought at that time, at the moment, maybe Brandy's, as in hey, brandy's welcome back. So this mini media manager has given me a task. What if I ask you what you think our community should be called? So here's what I'm thinking. What if, on this episode's social media announcement, whether it's on Instagram, on Facebook or on LinkedIn, you drop a comment with simply a name you think our community should be called? Or let's say, for instance, you see that someone else wrote a name that you really like and maybe you'd like to like that comment, and you can maybe reply to that comment and post the same name. And then maybe, just maybe, depending on the engagement to this little activity of ours here, by the time that the next episode is released, I'll get to greet our community with the name that you chose, and then I can tell my little media manager that the Brandly Interpreter community has spoken. He'll be proud of his mama. So what do you say? I look forward to seeing some of your responses. And now on with the show.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Janika Mayers is an English, french, spanish, haitian Creole language acrobat, as she calls herself. Additionally, she is an author, a speaker and a CEO. In 2010, janika was deployed to Haiti for the devastating earthquake. There, she was part of the emergency response team alongside doctors, nurses, search and rescue personnel, military and so on, mainly in part for her ability to speak French and Haitian Creole. And in today's captivating podcast episode, we're going to follow her remarkable journey, which begins in the Sugar King fields of Trinidad. So, without further ado, please help me welcome Jenica Mayers to the show. Jenica, thank you for being here today. Welcome to the show. How are you?

Speaker 2: 5:21

Good, good, good morning, and thank you so much for the invitation Great to be here.

Speaker 1: 5:27

Absolutely. Where are you joining us from today?

Speaker 2: 5:31

I am on the Paradise Island of Tobago. Paradise island of Tobago, Tobago a lot of people don't necessarily know but it's the smaller of the two islands that form the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. So Trinidad is the big sister that makes a lot of noise and most people know Tobago, Still kind of quiet and well-kept secret.

Speaker 1: 5:54

Well, that's a wonderful Tobago. I just always like to sort of physically pinpoint or pinpoint where the interpreters physically are joining us from, because obviously it's trying to capture the stories of interpreters from around the world. So thank you so very much for the opportunity and for being here today. Let's get into a little bit about your experience growing up. Would you mind perhaps sharing where you grew up and a fond childhood memory of yours?

Speaker 2: 6:21

Sure. So I was born on the big island, trinidad, and I grew up in the central plains what used to be growing up surrounded by sugarcane fields. Trinidad and Fago is a former British colony. Baghdad and Fago is a former British colony, and so for a very, very long time sugarcane was the cash crop of the nation. And so growing up, you know, I was used to seeing sugarcane fields around.

Speaker 2: 6:52

I grew up in a pretty tight-knit residential area known as Chaguanas, which is an Amerindian name, chaguanas and in terms of good childhood memories, I think just the landscape is something that has stayed with me because, of course, over time it has changed. There's no more sugarcane fields, sugarcane is no longer a cash crop in Trinidad and Tobago. We import sugar now. But I have this striking memory of just driving past certain areas and having the sugarcane fields and what we call the sugarcane arrows. At a certain time of year you'd have the arrows shooting up from the sugarcane and they would be sort of gently wafting in their breath. And this is a memory that I that I hold there, that just the kids growing up now don't know what that is. It doesn't exist anymore. So I hold on to it dearly.

Speaker 1: 7:46

I bet, yeah, it's funny. Now, you know, we get to a certain age where I find myself well, I should say I find myself saying back in my day myself saying back in my day.

Speaker 1: 8:06

We've reached that age right, we've earned those stripes. I could only imagine, yes, you thinking back into the beautiful landscape that the new generations now will not, sadly, get to see. It's almost like, oh, it's something that's part of the past, even though it's part of your reality. You traveled through the years, correct? So you weren't always there. Talk to us a little bit about some of those different places that you visited.

Speaker 2: 8:32

So for the most part I grew up and I lived in Trinidad. I would have left here at about 20. So most of my life I did spend in Trinidad, until I took St Tobago, and part of my travels really started thanks to the undergrad degree in French that I did at the University of the West Indies, based in Trinidad, whereby there was a program sponsored by the French government. I was studying French and as undergrads we had the opportunity to do a semester abroad that was sponsored by the government, and so we did that semester over at the Université des Antilles in Martinique, so one of the French overseas departments in the Caribbean. Full disclosure I am a Caribbean girl, true and true.

Speaker 2: 9:27

I don't do cold, so opportunities to me have typically been, or my choice of seizing opportunities, has typically been guided by the weather. I will snatch up opportunities anywhere in the tropics, anywhere that it's nice and warm. Anything that's a little bit far too north, far too south, I would decline. So my travels have essentially been along those lines initially to Martinique to study, and then that opened another doorway to becoming an English assistant, again thanks to the French government, whereby graduates of French university, graduates of French, had an opportunity to go teach English in France. And again, at the time, a lot of my classmates in the cohort opted to go to metropolitan France. Everybody wanted to go to Paris, bordeaux, montpellier, lyon Not me.

Speaker 2: 10:27

I was very happy to go to Martinique and, as a matter of fact, I was the first French grad to elect to stay in the Caribbean. It was just unheard of, but this is my comfort zone, and so I went back to Martinique. Thereafter, you know I have traveled a lot across the Caribbean and further afield, but I would just say that, thanks to my background in languages, I did study French and Spanish through high school and university, and that really opened doors for me to be able to enter into professions that I had not necessarily thought of when I was actually studying languages. I studied languages because that's what I was good at. I loved it, I was good at it and I just thought, okay, well, let me just go with what's easy, what's good. I didn't think too much at the time like what profession will I get into? That was not the point. The point was I'm passionate about this, I want to do this, and that's what I did.

Speaker 1: 11:29

So around the road.

Speaker 2: 11:30

Yes, yes, but it's all really been guided by opportunities that open up through foreign language learning and people that you meet along the way.

Speaker 1: 11:43

I think part of what I really like about that is the fact that you were guided by something that you enjoyed and you loved and you weren't as, maybe potentially as, serious about. Oh, I must focus on what I want to be when I grow up or how I'm going to use this professionally, even though that is a thought in many minds, potentially even as parents, we make that mistake, if I can call it that of such a young age, you know, trying to instill focus on what you want to do when you grow up as a profession. But part of the stories that I've heard along the way thanks to this podcast that are my favorite are the ones that I've heard along the way thanks to this podcast that are my favorite are the ones who were guided more by the heart than the mind or the head. Right and just saying this is what I really enjoy, and I'll think about that piece later but seeing how your path just opened up thanks to you, just following your heart.

Speaker 2: 12:37

I honestly couldn't. I couldn't do it any other way and thankfully my parents never put pressure on me to go in any particular direction. They were quite supportive of whatever dreams I had. And my dreams changed, you know, along the way, even coming back to a childhood memory, one of my aunts was a flight attendant, and so when she'd come by visit, she and my dad would speak French. Now I wasn't learning French yet, but I just know that it sounded foreign and sounded very nice. And then I always heard about these wonderful travel stories. You know, she seemed to have a very flamboyant life and I thought like, wow, okay, you can actually. You can actually make money doing that, as people live like that. And so at one point, I know, I wanted to follow in her footsteps and become a flight attendant and I figured out in my childhood mind that I'd have to be able to speak these you know foreign languages to be able to do that. That was a fleeting thought, that never happened, I never pursued it. But you know foreign languages to be able to do that. That was a fleeting thought, that never happened, I never pursued it.

Speaker 2: 13:41

But you know, things evolved over time, and I would say out of high school you just mentioned, you know, with parents sort of trying to get their children to focus. What happened in my case was my family is, you know, very had a very modest background and so, unlike most students out of high school who would go directly into university, my parents couldn't afford to send me to university and I was not brilliant to the point of having earned a scholarship. So I actually took time out right after what is, in our system, known as the A-level exams, because it's the former British education system that we've inherited. And so, right after high school exams then, instead of going straight on to college or university, I actually got a job right away, working as a trainee journalist in a local private television, and I was so excited, like you know, just getting a job, I was going to earn money my own money, right, and I love writing, I love being exactly what we're doing now conversing, you know, very natural for me to just get into conversation with people, and so that fit the bill for that job. And I worked there for two years and I share this story because there's a very critical moment that was a turning point for me when working as a trainee journalist.

Speaker 2: 15:09

There was this business delegation, a trade mission from Martinique that came to Trinidad at the time and I was assigned to cover the story, and there I was so happy to be able to speak to them in French and they were completely blown away that I was able to interview them with my high school French. I'm sure I made mistakes, but they were just impressed that somebody could speak to them in their language. And that's when it literally had. I had a eureka moment. The light bulb went on and I realized, okay, I could combine journalism with foreign languages and maybe I could be like a Christiane, amanpour or somebody, and I could travel the world, you know, as a journalist speaking different languages, interviewing people in different languages. So that actually became my focus at that point. Forget about the flight attendant and all that exotic stuff.

Speaker 2: 16:03

I then wanted to be a multilingual journalist and to be able to do that, I thought, okay, this is a time. I need to now go pursue undergrad studies, and that's how I made the decision to leave the job. Undergrad studies and that's how I made the decision to leave the job and go to university. By then I was able to save up some money to start university. Couldn't pay the whole, you know the whole thing. But I started university and then, because I was doing what I love and because I totally, totally loved what I was doing, I did um have access to what we call bursaries, um scholarships to pay for my second and third year at university. So I really started off with just enough to cover the first year, uh, and I opted to do French, uh, bachelor of Arts in French, alongside Spanish. So I studied both together and, um, that was my strategic move to say, okay, I need to equip myself with some kind of degree to be able to become this international, bilingual, multilingual journalist, oh, my gosh, what a story.

Speaker 1: 17:12

I love it too, because it's, like you said, a eureka moment. It's like suddenly it's clear to you and then you follow that path, but then only to find out that that path isn't necessarily a straight path towards right. There's always like these oh, that a scenic route.

Speaker 2: 17:29

Yeah, I always tell people I I I never took that highway, I always got the scenic route through the countryside with the long, winding, you know meandering roads. That's been the story of my life.

Speaker 1: 17:40

The scenic route, I love that talk to us about your experience in France, because you go from one place that you're used to, you're, you're obviously here, um, I would imagine in your early teens or later teens, maybe even young adult, and you, you are by yourself, I imagine, in a brand new place. What was that like? What was that feeling like for you? What do you remember most about that experience?

Speaker 2: 18:07

So I was actually early 20s because I took that two-year hiatus after high school before studying. By the time I graduated I was already about 20, maybe 21. So, and I think, also having worked so early and working with much more mature people, I was working with some stalwarts, real broadcasting veterans, known across the Caribbean. So I think I matured quite quickly through that first job experience. So, even though I was 20, 21, I think I had a level of maturity where I did not necessarily have any apprehensions about throwing myself into new places, new ventures. I didn't have that notion of fear. Everything for me just felt like opportunity and excitement. Another thing, and this goes back a little bit to my past, even as a teenager, although I did not have the means to travel at the time or my parents didn't have the means to send me abroad at the time I was a member of the Alliance Francaise that they send me abroad. At the time I was a member of the Alliance Francaise and there were student exchanges every summer July, August vacation and so, although I was not able to go overseas with some of my classmates to go to France or wherever, every year I did host students from Martinique and Guadeloupe in my parents' home. So growing up I did already have that exposure to foreign language and to foreign concepts and cultures and being able to have conversations and build friendships, relationships with persons from outside. So I was right here in my country, but I still felt like I had this window to the world. So by the time I was able to, by the time I graduated and I took up the opportunity to become an English assistant in Martinique, I knew people there already. I knew people from the business mission who I kept in touch with over the years and back then it was postcards. You know you had pen pals. I know this probably sounds like a foreign in my day, yeah, back in my day. This sounds like a foreign concept to some of your listeners, but you know I kept in touch with those people. I met at the very first trade mission where I got that light bulb movement and so what happened? Very naturally and I think it's something to do with the Caribbean as well, because it's quite small you know the, the countries are quite small, populations are under 500,000.

Speaker 2: 20:41

So by the time I landed in Martinique for the first time, I felt like I had already known the place because I knew people there. They were very welcoming. I had invitations all the time to go here, there, everywhere go to this concert, that event, go sailing, go to this seminar, come and meet these people Very, very quickly. I felt integrated into the society there. And there's one thing again about the Caribbean Through history, you know, we have English-speaking, French-speaking Spanish, Dutch, Creole-speaking Caribbean islands based on the former colonial powers who would have passed through the region. But in spite of these differences in culture and language, there is this commonality I think that all Caribbean people share, and so, even though I was in a French speaking territory, it still felt like home to me. The landscape, the food, the music, it still felt like home. So I just did not have that notion of being in a foreign land. It just was home, but speaking a different language.

Speaker 1: 21:52

That's amazing, how great and how fortunate.

Speaker 1: 21:54

I think I think that one of my once again going back to the different stories that I've heard, uh throughout the last few years, uh that are that are part of my favorites have to do with, uh, just the courage to, to take that leap, uh, in spite of the unknown, in spite of not knowing, and then only to find out once you're there, like, yes, like it just solidifies right Once, once you've made that decision, I'm so happy. I said yes, because you know what's on the other side is is something that just expands your world and and you know it, you know, you feel it. So thank you for having shared that. What is it about there that you would say at some point, was it there? There that you would say at some point, was it there? Or once you came back, that you went from the language I would say acquisition, part of language, services to the language, maybe output, or that connection between languages. Talk to us about that experience, when that occurred, when that world collided with the world you were in.

Speaker 2: 23:03

I love that question, miria, and I'm getting teary-eyed because it was another life-changing moment. So I signed up for one year of being an English teaching assistant, which really and truly didn't feel like work at all. It just felt like fun and games. To be honest, I was getting paid to go to school and help, you know, share the passion of language with high school students and then primary school students, and with the primary school students it basically was teaching English through games, through song, dance, theatre. It just felt like fun, right.

Speaker 2: 23:44

But while living in Martinique and, as I said before, you know I already knew people there I was very quickly integrated into society and because I had that business mind, I was still looking for other opportunities to own my skills in French, but in a different sphere, not just in the realm of the school or just conversational French, but business French then. And at the same time, I was looking for opportunities to help because at that point in time and this was in the late 1990s, early 2000s, so yeah, 25 years ago the French islands in the Caribbean were seeking to integrate more into the wider Caribbean space. So, though, that they're politically attached to France, geographically they're surrounded by English and Spanish speakers. And so there was a political movement at the time, just to give some context particularly attached to France, geographically, they're surrounded by English and Spanish speakers. And so there was a political movement at the time, just to give some context, whereby they were seeking to become members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. They were seeking to become members of what's known as the Association of Caribbean States, which is headquartered here in Port of Spain, trinidad, here in in port of spain, trinidad. And so, because you already had that, that move um, you had both businesses and local politicians speaking actively to both learn english, um, but also to to get in contact with um persons in the neighboring islands who were operating in both spaces. And so I saw that opportunity as being able to become a bridge, and I always talk about bridging language barriers, so I was able to offer myself as a bridge between Martinique and its English-speaking neighbors.

Speaker 2: 25:35

I didn't quite know what I was doing at the time, to be honest, but I knew that I'm a native English speaker and my French was pretty good. At some point, you know, people didn't believe that I was not French, right, I started speaking even the local Creole, and so people, for those who didn't know me for a long time. They just they didn't know that I was not from there for a long time. They just they didn't know that I was not from there. And so I was able to work alongside some business people, some of the local mayor's offices, who wanted to establish, for example, twinning relationships with other cities and in other islands, and I became like their liaison, sort of international affairs liaison person who would bridge the language barriers, cultural barriers and get them connected with the people they wanted to connect with. And, coming out of that, I then started serving as interpreter for those meetings.

Speaker 2: 26:37

I had no idea what I was doing Really I didn't but I knew that I was fulfilling my purpose.

Speaker 2: 26:45

I knew that I was contributing to something meaningful that was being created at the time, and remember I said this was like 25 years ago. Now, 2024, we're seeing the result of those strides in partnership whereby you have these same islands have now been officially integrated into some of the regional political mechanisms that exist. They are either associate members or they are full-fledged members, the most recent being Martinique applied to become an associate member of CARICOM, the Caribbean community. That's yet another mechanism that we have in the Caribbean, and so I'm privileged to be a witness today and be part of some of the grand meetings that are happening at ministerial level, governmental level happening at ministerial level, governmental level, and to know that I was also there at the start, when that movement was just, you know, just very timidly happening in an informal way. So I can look back with pride and say, hey, I had no clue about what I was doing, but something in me knew that I was in the right place at the right time.

Speaker 1: 27:55

So, going back to that experience, jenica, the liaison piece and well, first of all, you mentioned that you offered your services. Do you remember how you did that? Was this through the connections that you had already established and sort of by word of mouth, someone recommending you and you just happened to help one day, quote, unquote or do you remember how that came? Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 28:23

I remember the exact moment, the exact person, so it was the Chamber of Commerce of Martinique and I'll call a name Marie-Noelle Cattay. She was part of the business delegation from Martinique that visited Trinidad when I met as a journalist, and when I got to Martinique, she wasinidad when I met as a journalist and when I got to Martinique, she was very instrumental in, you know, helping me fit in and we are in contact up to today, today, right, and that's why I call her there, because if she ever gets a window of this podcast, she'll be recognized. Thank you, mary Noel. And there are lots of other persons, but basically at that time, um, what happened is there was the well, actually there were lots of other persons, but basically at that time, um, what happened is there was the well, actually there were several meetings, but the very first meeting because she knew that I was skilled in in languages and I think was a last minute thing but, um, I was asked whether I could serve as an interpreter, but this time in a booth with equipment. That was like first time I had actually been into a booth I had not been trained for that by any means, um, but because I have no notion of fear and I thought, okay, this can't be that difficult. I jumped right in, right, um, I jumped right in. Uh, I think I managed to swim rather than sink.

Speaker 2: 29:38

Interestingly enough, that meeting was hosted by IFREMER. It's l'Institut Français de Recherche Maritime or something like that. It's a marine research institute. It was the very first meeting I did in a booth. Prior to that, I would have sat in on B2B meetings doing what I now know to be whispering, interpreting, liaison, interpreting. At the time I didn't know any of that stuff, but so those are the two key moments. But I would say as well, while while I was overseas, I well, I did keep in touch with my former lecturers at the University of the West Indies back home, and you know I'm somebody, I cherish relationships, and I did have the privilege of having very good relationships with my teachers, who have all become friends, mentors and, in one case, my booth buddy.

Speaker 2: 30:42

And so over the years, yeah so. So over the years they would have encouraged me to look into particular paths. And you know, janica, you should take a look at this. This sounds like it might be good for you, why don't you have a look at this? And they would share opportunities with me, always really looking out for my, my best interests.

Speaker 2: 31:03

Um, so, after that, because that was my Martinique um stage for three years, I then went over to to Guadeloupe. There's a love story in the middle of it. I got married to a Frenchman and moved to Guadeloupe, so another French overseas territory, but a completely different island. And of course, my experience there would then have been colored by the fact that I was Mrs Somebody. It was not, you know, on my own anymore, but still very much cherished learning experience, because then I was working with my husband at the time and who himself was multilingual. So it gave me, I think, a boost of confidence in my own language skills and opened up other opportunities to be able to use language differently in business. And last but not least, that was another milestone moment where I thought OK, the Bachelor of Arts got me to here, I want to go a little further in my studies. And an opportunity came up to pursue a master's degree in communications in a French university. So I was able to marry the journalism experience that I had prior, formalize it with the you know, communications theory and applications, and, at the same time, because my husband and I worked together he worked in the field of change management and he needed a comms person that comms person happened to be me, so I was able to have that practical application of communications in a French language in completely different business sectors that I had not experienced before.

Speaker 2: 32:55

And I share that. You know, I'm completely transparent. I share that because you just never know where life is going to take you. That decision was. It was a hard decision. I went to Guadeloupe for love, um, but I found much, much more there and I could not have known. It's not a calculation I could have made beforehand to say I'm gonna go pursue studies or I'm gonna go do this, no, I just I went there for love and that opened up other doors, which then opened other doors. But, uh, let's just say that at that time I ended up then living, working, getting to know Guadalupe, um, you know, making more connections in in Guadalupe and, um, making a lot of more beautiful friendships, long-lasting friendships. Again, these are people I met back at that time who are still friends today, and those are the things that I cherish most. It's the relationships, you know. It's not about the job or the studies or the status. It's the relationships that you weave with people that you meet along the way.

Speaker 1: 34:08

Oh, absolutely yes, and it's because of those relationships at times that sort of help us make the connections to whatever opportunity may come right and it only happens, I imagine. Well, I happen to actually know if we are out there letting people know what it is that we do or talking a little bit about you know our experiences, so that they can make the connection when they're having those conversations. So the experience in the booth for you happened on occasion, but then, you know, life sort of sort of went on and you were doing things here and there. You know keeping busy life. You know just happened. Do you remember what you recall from the booth experience, aside from you recognizing whoa like this was, you know?

Speaker 1: 35:00

I didn't know what I was doing, but nevertheless, what do you recall from that particular experience? Did it show you, teach you anything in terms of how language is utilized?

Speaker 2: 35:13

My goodness, you just really took me back. Listen, what stood out in the booth and I'm glad I don't remember the name of the person I worked with was she was a real interpreter. I was the, the newbie next to her. Um, I think we, you know, we had a good dynamics going on in the booth, um, but the meeting went over time and she protested very vehemently that she was not going on over time and she just got up and left the booth and I was there by myself and I'm like I can't leave. I mean these, these people need me. So I stayed in the booth again, not knowing what I was doing, but I was committed to, you know, going till the end of the meeting because these people needed me. You know I was their bridge. How were they gonna communicate without me? Not that it was about me, but I just felt a sense of duty that, regardless of this you know mature interpreter who actually knew what she was doing, she left. But I felt so terrible. I just they thanked me profusely at the end for staying and the meeting it went on for like another two hours.

Speaker 2: 36:32

These were passionate scientists talking about it was a whale sort of mapping, like they were mapping the trajectory of whales in the Caribbean. This was high level stuff but of interest to me. I love whales. You know I'd gone whale watching in the Caribbean before and it was intriguing to me that this was their life and so I stayed. But what that taught me is that there's something called booth etiquette. I learned that years down the road when I actually decided to study interpreting. So that's another part of my academic and life story. The love story in Guadeloupe didn't quite work out and so, sort of trying to take care of my wounded heart, I went back to Trinidad, to my homeland, and I came back home just at the time when my same alma mater, university of the West Indies, was offering for the first time um a postgraduate diploma in interpreting no exactly when I went home just to like try to pick up the pieces and figure out, okay, what am I going to do next with myself.

Speaker 2: 37:49

And so I just dived right into that interpreting program, which started a few months after I landed in Trinidad. As a matter of fact, I remember very clearly my same French teacher mentor, very clearly my my same french teacher mentor. Um, he told me, you know, you're, you're late in the application process, but we'll, we'll make an exception for you because we, you know, you, have a track record here. And so I was kind of the last person to apply. We passed the deadline, but I was there when the program started, first cohort, and I graduated a year later with a couple of the colleagues. Not everyone made it through the program, but I was committed. You know, at that point it was more like that was like my life boy, because, you know, life was a little difficult at the time. I was still trying to figure out, you know, what am I going to do with myself, and I latched on to interpreting diploma and again, that was another life-changing moment once I graduated, matter of fact, before the graduation and I love to share this story because it is a tribute to the teachers who taught that program, in that our final exam was a live booth. This was no simulation event for the exam. They threw us into a live booth, so the booth comes back to your life. The booth came back. So I had already, for the year of interpreting the interpreting program at the university, we were working, of course, in a dummy booth for the year. That wasn't overwracking enough, but then they threw us into the live booth.

Speaker 2: 39:39

It was the start of June 2006. I remember the date, I remember the scene, I remember the food. I remember everything. It was CARICOM, the Caribbean community's very first meeting of agriculture ministers. That took place again in Trinidad, in my homeland. This is a high level meeting. These are agriculture ministers, right, talking agriculture, of course, but they throw us into the booth for the exam. Um, I don't think that the attendees knew that we. There was some student interpreters in the booth, so we had one student, paired, of course, with the teacher, because it was an exam. They were monitoring us in the booth and, if needed you know, if we failed, they would take over the booth. So the system was in place. Know, if we failed, they would take over the booth. So the system was in place.

Speaker 2: 40:29

Nevertheless, it could have been nerve wracking, and I'm after the first. You know the nerves. You always get nerves, even now I get nerves, you know, when you get into the booth. But I just remember feeling like I was floating. I was floating in the booth because the stuff they were talking about regardless of the fact that these were ministers, the subject matter for me was not foreign. You know, I grew up, like I said, I grew up in the midst of sugarcane fields. I was very familiar with um agriculture, even through my my experience as a journalist, and that's where everything that I did before I realized, wow, it was just preparation for this moment, and so I tackled yeah, I tackled that meeting.

Speaker 2: 41:13

you know, just head on, I felt like I was floating. I was. I was so happy I passed the exam and right after that, know, I did start working as an interpreter freelance, because I was also, so I omitted to mention. I did get a job as a communication specialist when I went back home, because I studied comms and I remember negotiating with my employer at the time because I knew that I was going to do the interpreting program, and I was telling them in the interview listen, I have this extra special skill set that I have to maintain and so I'm going to need time off. Yes, I'm applying for a job, but, yeah, I'm going to need time off to go study, to maintain this special skill set, and don't worry, because you're going to benefit from it, which, which is the truth um, I ended up working at a institute of marine research.

Speaker 2: 42:13

Does that sound familiar? Yeah, does it sound familiar to my personal experience? So you know, I I don't believe in coincidences in life. I think that when you're constantly in preparation and you're constantly trying to be the best version of yourself, that when preparation meets opportunity, that's where you get success. And so if I say today that I've been successful it's only because I'm in constant preparation and so when the opportunities come I'm able to say yes, and that's what makes way for success. So there was communication specialist in the Marine Institute. Telling my future employer, I actually want to go study interpreting, they kind of scratching their head like what is that about?

Speaker 1: 43:02

What do you mean? You don't speak another language. Why do you need to go to school for that?

Speaker 2: 43:06

yeah, right, right, but here's the beautiful part of the story. This is why I give this level of detail. Um, I did get the job and I settled in and everything, but I didn't have the class times yet, and when I got the class times, there was a bit of a clash and so I had to where I thought that I could just leave work and go to class. I actually had to get time off to go to class and that didn't go down very well. Um, I had to make the decision to leave the job because I knew what I wanted to do and I left the job. Now I'm not recommending this to anybody. I'm just saying that this is what I did and it worked for me.

Speaker 2: 43:47

But I made the decision to leave the job without having another job to go to because I felt in that moment that interpreting would be my future. Now, that's a pretty huge risk If you're married, you've got children and bills and all that stuff. It's probably not a wise decision for you, but at the time I was recently divorced, living in my my parents home, and my choice was just listen, this is my future. And so now I look back at that choice and if they got a genica. It was pretty, pretty brazen, but this is what I'm doing today because I made that choice back in 2006. And the irony of that story is, having completed the interpreting program, one of the very first jobs was right back with that very same institute. They had a regional event because they're part of the UN network called Regional Activity Centers, and so they were liaising with guess who Martinique and Cuba, and so they needed interpreters for a big meeting being hosted in Trinidad Guess who was there.

Speaker 1: 45:03

And what did you say? I told you so.

Speaker 2: 45:06

I just gave that to myself. I told myself you should have kept me. But you know the thing is, had I not laughed, I might not have been able to serve as an interpreter. I most likely would have been serving in my capacity as communication specialist, you know organizing the event. I may not have been able to serve as interpreter in that event. So you know it ended well.

Speaker 1: 45:28

I think it ended in my favor and I'm watching the interpreters from afar.

Speaker 2: 45:33

Yeah, yeah and that happened to me lots of times and I always had the itch. I'd always go the booth and I'm always checking in on the booth because I want to be in there. You know, you get this kind of itchy, you just want to be in there, and that happened a lot over the years where I was still operating. So this is another part of the story in that I, although I had graduated from the interpreting program, I wasn't able to make a living, full-time from that, and so I continued working, as you know, communications specialists in different organizations that actually, there was another key moment in my life where I was working with the Red Cross in Trinidad and the 2010 earthquake happened in Haiti, and that was like another life-changing moment because I was literally one of the nearest colleagues in the Red Cross network global network, right next door, so to speak, in Trinidad, and they were looking for French-speaking communication specialists to go to Haiti to deploy with the first responders and so forth. Because you know what happens in those response operations is that you know you have the first responders, the medics and so forth, the persons who are involved in distribution of aid, whether it's food or whatever have you, but you also have the communication specialists who tag along to make sure that the world knows what's happening. And also also for accountability, because you have donors who are giving money to organizations like the Red Cross and you have to account for how that money is being spent. And part of accounting for it is documenting the stories, showing through photography, through video, how the money is being spent, what is the impact that that spending is having, how are people coping with the situation. And so I was deployed in that capacity.

Speaker 2: 47:32

But I was deployed because I spoke French my much more experienced colleagues, because at that time I had been working with the Red Cross for, I think, just about nine months. Nine months, so really a newbie on the job, um, but I was liaising with my colleagues in panama, in geneva, in in other areas of the world, and just because I was in the caribbean and it was shorter distance for me to get to haiti than my colleagues in geneva or in panama, um, I would have been among the first who landed there with the Red Cross. But again, I say again, french opened the door for me, and so language has been a consistent theme. When I talk about, you know, opening doors and opportunities, it's always tied with the opportunity to serve. You know, it's not just an opportunity for me to get something. It's an opportunity, first of all, to serve, to do something that's meaningful. And on the flip side of that, yes, you do get some life-changing, rewarding, unimaginable experiences along the way when you allow yourself to be led, as I have.

Speaker 1: 48:43

Absolutely to be led, as I have, absolutely. I've read somewhere that you see yourself as more than an interpreter, and I think it connects back to the message that you just shared. Would you mind elaborating more on this, because I think that many listeners can make that same connection? What are your feelings behind that?

Speaker 2: 49:04

Firstly, I have very strong feelings about that. Language is a key. It's a tool. If I use a metaphor, the key, it's meant to unlock a door, because if you have the key in your hand and you do nothing with the key, what's the point of having the key right? Likewise, a tool, whether it's a mechanics tool or whatever. You could have a box of tools. They're all nice, new, shiny, the fancy, latest edition tools, you could have it all. If you don't know how to use the tool, what's the point? And so I would like to place language in that context. It's a tool, but you get to decide how you use that tool or how you use that key. Some people use the language tool in teaching. Some people use the language tool in journalism, as I once dreamt of. I actually dabbled in that a little bit, but not at the level that I dreamt of, right. So it's up to you to decide how you're going to use that tool.

Speaker 2: 50:07

And what's been instrumental in my journey is through the relationships that I've built, through the people that I've met, through the conversations that we've had, I've been able to identify problems. I like to think of myself as a good and creative problem solver. So in any conversation I'm listening to hear what's this person's problem, and I don't say that in a condescending way at all. I say that just to say if this person expresses that there's some sort of challenge, some sort of problem, maybe I can provide a solution. Now the solution might be language-oriented. The solution might be connecting them to someone that I know who has a solution to their problem right. But even that connection is in itself the start of the solution. And I've found 100% of the time, without exception, it comes to relationship. I know somebody who knows somebody who can fix that problem that you have and, because of the quality of the relationships that I've nurtured over the years, if I call that somebody, they will call that somebody that they know to provide a solution. So there's a lot of trust that's built up and I like to say that it's a currency. It's a very precious currency, that currency of trust. So language, the tool mired with the currency of trust it really has over the years for me, it's both placed me in situations strategically where I know that I'm the best person to to resolve that specific problem, and so it's.

Speaker 2: 52:01

I take it as a duty when I say I'm more than an interpreter. I do have a sense of duty about what I do. I'm very mindful, very attentive to people's needs, because I think a lot of what we see in our society and right now in my home country not to digress too much, but we are experiencing very worrisome levels of crime and for me, I think it comes out of the fact that there's been such a breakdown in trust not trusting your neighbor, not trusting your employer, the employer, not trusting the employee, not trusting the politicians, the leaders, trusting the employee, not trusting the politicians, the leaders. And I feel very strongly that my role in my little sphere is to be able to beat that bridge, as I said before, and build trust so that we can solve problems together.

Speaker 2: 53:03

Because the whole point of communicating in a foreign language, at the basis it's communication. And why are we communicating? I mean, we could talk to ourselves all day. That might be fun. Some people like their own company, I like my own company, but at the end of the day, we communicate with other people, other human beings, because we want to do something together. You want to collaborate on a project, or you want to, or you need to resolve a problem together. Two heads are better than one. So all of that to say, yes, I am more than an interpreter. I am very often a mediator, I am very often a connector, um, I am very often an instigator.

Speaker 1: 53:47

I give birth to new projects, and I do all of that through the use of languages I love that I love being able to expand on how we feel our role really is, or what we feel our role really is. Feel our role really is, and I think, as I'm hearing you talk about the topics of relationships and trust and how we, as the individuals that are helping convey the messages in words that establish trust right in a way in which it resonates, I should say, with those that are listening, that begins to grow trust with one another. Like I think about a phrase that I read a while back that said in nature, nothing and I'm paraphrasing here completely, but somewhere around the lines of in nature, nothing exists for its own sake. You know, a flower doesn't blossom so that it could look beautiful for itself or smell beautiful for itself. Like in nature, everything it's together, right, it's? It's it's about one thing providing to another thing and that other thing to the other thing, and I feel that that's that's really what, when we step in as interpreters.

Speaker 1: 55:07

It's exactly what you say. It's so that we can ensure that that relationship or that trust can be established between the two individuals or more that are trying to communicate with one another. So that was beautifully said. I really like that and appreciate that. About what you feel the role of the interpreter and your own role in your capacity is all about. Talk to us about that moment in your interpreting career now as a professional interpreter. So fast forward, now that you are doing this as a trained interpreter now and doing it professionally, that you embarked on it full career, full throttle, as they say. What was that story or that moment as an interpreter? That sort of put that rubber stamp of this is where I'm staying.

Speaker 2: 55:59

All right, I'm going to try to make this story short because it's long and it's the scenic route of my life, but basically I've been working, as I said, communications internationally. You know I've been so I spoke about Haiti. I've worked in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe as a communication specialist, different organizations, but along the way I would take vacation leave to work as an interpreter whenever the opportunity arose.

Speaker 2: 56:28

And again, again, thanks to my teachers at university, whenever there was an opportunity, they'd call me. Wherever I was in the world, They'd still call me and say, hey, are you interested? Is it worth your time to come? You know, if it was a three or five day conference, it would make sense to leave wherever I was and fly back home or fly to the location to work as an interpreter for a few days. And you know, I always had that very open, transparent conversation with all of my employers. I have the skill, I have to maintain it and you're going to benefit from it. So just just be warned, Right? And I always said that in a very diplomatic way. And for the most part everyone welcomed that skill because the organizations made use of that skill, particularly in translation. In the international organizations I worked with, they got two employees for the price of one. They paid a comm specialist but they got a translator interpreter that works. So they couldn't complain, right? But then there was a thing called COVID, Do you remember? Remember it seems like right.

Speaker 2: 57:33

So I've been working um as a communication specialist for years and then, 2020, covid happened while I was overseas. I was working in Zimbabwe at the time and I had some concerns for my safety, not just COVID related, but, you know, there were rumors of another coup and I felt, look, I don't want to be out here if something should happen to me. I didn't want my parents to have the burden of flying a body back and if something were to happen to my parents, I didn't want to be halfway across the globe and not be able to come home. So I felt I made what was a good decision at the time, in spite of how you know crazy it seemed, and I flew home and I had resigned my job, you know, resigned the job, left the foreign country, flew home in the midst of COVID to do what? Thankfully, so thankfully at that time, actually, while I was still in Zimbabwe, I was hearing about, you know, these new multilingual platforms that were being developed and that the multilingual meetings were all going online, and so I jumped on board. I remember doing a training with Kudo at the time. That's one of those platforms that you know really exploded at the start of COVID. That had been in development before, of course, but then COVID sort of gave the impetus to just actually make this the norm, and so I, when I came home, I very quickly.

Speaker 2: 59:06

And so when I came home, I very quickly, even before I came home, started sort of reaching out to former colleagues, people I trust, and letting them know hey, I'm coming home, I don't have a job. If you need somebody to do translations or interpreting or anything, I'll be home. And, of course, even in my country we were still functioning under curfew and lockdown, a lot of restrictions. So I was basically trying to see if I can generate new leads of work that I could do online, whether it was editorial work, writing articles, translations, anything that I could do online, because I had no idea what I was coming home to. I mean, none of us had any idea what was going to unfold. Right, this was the start of 2020.

Speaker 2: 1:00:02

And again, fortunately for me and fortunately for the relationships that I had built over the years, I very quickly was able to get a few online jobs, meetings online, and you know I was living off my savings at the time, but you know I had a limited time frame that those savings would last, because by this time I now have a mortgage to pay and living on. So at that time I was no longer in Trinidad, mainland Trinidad, where my family is. I was in Tobago, where I have no family, a few friends and not any real network of connections to say that I could just go get a job, especially in the midst of COVID. And so what really saved the day was, yeah, all of these online platforms Kudo, interprefy, interactio, and even former clients, so persons I would have worked with in Guadeloupe, in Martinique, elsewhere, because now travel was no longer well, it was no longer an option, but also it was no longer a hindrance, because before, if you wanted me to come interpret in your meeting, you have to pay my plane ticket, hotel accommodation, premium lodging, everything Whereas now you know, I just jump online and you pay me for my services and that's it. So I was fairly quickly able to start generating income from that interpreting exclusively online, because in my country nothing was happening in person at all, not until maybe towards the end of 2021. So I had probably about a year.

Speaker 2: 1:01:39

I have never worked as an interpreter for so many meetings, but that period prior it would have been maybe two or three days a month. If I got a five-day meeting, it would be five days out of the month when I worked as a freelance interpreter. And so I also made the decision to incorporate a company because I realized, okay, I'm actually earning a living from interpreting online and I had no job and there were no jobs to go to. So I incorporated a company called Interpreting your Needs, and the very name of the company speaks to what I do. It's not just interpreting, it's interpreting the needs and the needs might have nothing to do with languages. It's interpreting the needs and the needs might have nothing to do with languages. It could be in any sphere of life, actually. And so that company was incorporated in 2021, july 2021.

Speaker 2: 1:02:40

And I'm proud to say I'm not just an interpreter anymore, I'm the CEO of my own company. I am the interpreter in chief I love that title interpreter-in-chief and you know I work with a team of freelancers, freelance interpreters, a lot of much younger interpreters who are coming up, who have graduated from the same university that I went to. You know much younger cohorts, as well as interpreters globally, because you know, with everything going online, you don't have to limit yourself to the country or the region that you live in. I've worked now with interpreters who are based on African continent, who are based in North America, south America. I've serviced a client in New Zealand, okay.

Speaker 2: 1:03:27

So, with COVID and with all respect for persons who have lost so much during that period and you know I don't have to rehash those details but my experience has been the opposite I was able to finally live my dream, working full-time as an interpreter, thanks to COVID. I know that sounds strange, but thanks to the technology that evolved, thanks to the meetings going online, thanks to the network of people who recommended me, say, hey, we know her, we've worked with her before in a previous life. Right, it felt like 10, 20 years ago. You can work with her before in a previous life. Right, it felt like 10, 20 years ago. Um, you can work with her, too, online.

Speaker 2: 1:04:12

And so I really, um, I'm very grateful for, for the persons, the friends, the colleagues, former colleagues most of my former colleagues are friends now who would have, through word of mouth, recommended my services, um, vouch for for my company, vouched for me, and I have been able to establish not just a network of freelancers because, you know, interpreting is not a solitary venture, it's a team sport but also I have been able to build a network of clientele globally while working right here in my home in Tobago on a little rock of 60,000 people, and that has been, to date, I think, my life's single most rewarding accomplishment.

Speaker 1: 1:05:16

I feel you have given so much to learn from, so much inspiration, and all of that through, as you call it, your scenic route, all of that through your journey, independence, going out there, trying to just find business on our own, that we often forget that very important element of relationships and the people that we have experienced or have come across paths in the past with, to sort of let them know hey, I knew you here, this is what I'm now doing, because you don't ever know when that can come back to.

Speaker 1: 1:05:52

I know someone. Actually, I think we tend to sometimes, unfortunately, think, from this point forward, I'll begin to tell people that I meet or that I know. This is what I do. Hi, my name is Mireya and this is what I specialize in, as opposed to no, I want to tell everyone in my network so that everyone is aware and that way, when those buzzwords hit, they can come back and refer back to me. So I think that, out of everything that I've heard today which is an amazing story of just synchronicities and preparation and sometimes fearless actions or, in spite of the fear, continue down your path my favorite message today was the networking and establishing and sustaining those relationships, not with the intention that I'll never know when I need you. It's just authentic relationship building Absolutely, which is part of the process right.

Speaker 2: 1:06:54

Authenticity is key. This is not about transactional relationships no, it's, and people know when you're fake.

Speaker 1: 1:07:03

Even through screens, people know when you're fake. Absolutely All they do now is keep scrolling. Jenica, we have come to the end of today's episode, but I have just a couple more questions for you right before we close. The very first one is what recommendation would you give to individuals that are desiring to begin in this profession potentially the new generation of interpreters that wish to enter this field? What are some of those recommendations that you can give to them that can help inspire them through their scenic route as they begin to start their journey?

Speaker 2: 1:07:45

This may sound counterintuitive, but I would say do what's right for you. What worked for me may not work for you. I'm a different person. You have your own talent, skills, personality, baggage, aspirations. Do what works for you. Yes, at some point along the way you want to formalize your talent, because a lot of people have latent talent, you're gifted in a particular area, but at some point you want to formalize that with some form of instruction structure that may take the form of of a degree program, that may take the form of some sort of apprenticeship. So you want to to back up your talent and your gift with something of substance, in whatever form that makes sense to you. I had that opportunity gifted to me right here in my homeland. For you, it might mean traveling overseas to go to a university somewhere. It might also mean living in a foreign land to really formalize your language acquisition. Whatever it is, do what's right for you.

Speaker 2: 1:09:01

And I will mirror what you said, miria, in terms of telling your network. I mean, we find it so easy to tell our network what we had for breakfast this morning on Facebook or Instagram or whatever. But why not tell your network, hey, I'm looking for opportunities in XYZ. Or hey, I'm in this country and I'd love to meet up with I don't know whoever's here. I think we have a fantastic tool that is social media that can help us connect across borders and boundaries and again, it's up to us to how we use that tool strategically to ask for what we want. Maybe that's my last point. I am a huge fan of asking for precisely what I want. I will ask people for exactly what I want or need. The answer might be no, but then the answer might be hey, I can't help you. But I know somebody who does right, and I also believe in speaking these things into the atmosphere that somewhere, somehow, god is going to respond.

Speaker 1: 1:10:07

Ask and you shall receive Speaking into the atmosphere and, yes, that may mean talking to yourself sometimes. Okay, so it's okay to talk to yourself and speak your dreams out loud. That's wonderful advice, jenica. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the asking for what you want. I think in my personal experience that the latent talent, like you just called it to me, came more in the sense of latent courage, and I think the asking for the things that I want came later in life for me, as the me self was created and I felt more confident in my own skin. But I can attest to the power of asking for what you want, even if, just as you said, the answer is no. It doesn't mean no forever. It could mean no for now, and later it comes back to a yes.

Speaker 2: 1:11:05

There's an acronym I like to say. No means next opportunity, love it. It's no to this one, but you just move on to the next To the next, you keep asking.

Speaker 1: 1:11:15

Absolutely, jenica. It's been such a privilege and a pleasure speaking with you here today. Thank you for joining us in today's episode of Brand the Interpreter. I highly encourage anyone that is listening to connect with Jenica and, in any way possible, if you would be so kind, jenica, to share where our listeners can find out more about you and the work that you do.

Speaker 2: 1:11:38

So and thank you, mireya, congratulations on keeping this podcast going. I want to say that publicly, it's not easy to start. Okay, the hardest part of anything new is to start, and you've not only started, you've kept it going, and thanks to you, you know people like myself were able to connect with each other. One of the favorite places I hang out virtually is on LinkedIn. So please reach out to me on LinkedIn, connect, and that's the place where I am at my most authentic right. I love entertaining conversations there on LinkedIn.

Speaker 2: 1:12:13

I am also on Facebook, I would say a little bit less, but link up with me on LinkedIn, and I'd say this also the online conversations very quickly become offline conversations. I've had the privilege of hosting here at home several people that I've met on LinkedIn from across the globe, and it's a whole other realm of opportunity to be able to share of yourself, share of your culture, and then learn from somebody else who's from a completely different culture, and you don't have to travel to their country to do that. You just need to connect with the person. You just need to connect with the person to get that window, that access to a whole different country and different culture. So I want to encourage that.

Speaker 1: 1:13:01

LinkedIn for the win yet again. Thank you so much, Jenica. I appreciate you being here today.

Speaker 2: 1:13:07

Likewise Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.