The Connection Gap
Not a lot of people know that I
actually participate in fair amount of voluntary work. Most of the time I’m
requested by Chinese speaking people to be the bridge between their
communication to the Filipino’s they’re dealing with. In other words, I am a
non-professional translator, and I do this job for free.
Now that’s fine. I mean, I
work twice as much as normal people because of that, yet most of the time I
don’t begrudge such a fact. There are times, however, that I couldn’t
understand why people who requested me to do volunteer work show so little
generosity and even empathy.
For example, last week as I
was in a car with a group of people, going to Kaibiga, a province in the
outskirts of Calooocan, people inside communicated amongst themselves not even
saying a single word to me. Besides the fact that I already feel quite uneasy
being inside the car of someone who’s nearly a total stranger, these people did
not open up to me oblivious to the fact that I am doing all of them a favor of
taking a “translate-for-free” tasks. I’m not the most loquacious person and I
don’t beg for royal accommodations but attempts to speak with me would’ve been
appreciated.
Of course, I wouldn’t have
griped so much about this had it only happened once, but it happened multiple
times amongst different group of people. I know I may not be the most benign-looking
person of the bunch, but somehow there’s something disturbing about the culture
these Chinese are promoting to me. In similar situations where I am inside a car
with groups of all Filipinos, heck, even when in cabs with a total stranger,
people would open up to me before I could even say “talk”.
Meanwhile, I am going
through all of this while picturing myself looking at a glass window, watching
events unfold, with little to no involvement, from people who know me but won’t
let me know who they are. I wish these people can look past the fact that I can
speak more than 3 languages. I wish these people will realize that I, too, am a
person who wants to connect with others; that while I can do translations, I am
also capable of feeling lonely. I wish these people knew that I don’t give my darnedest about my reputation or who my parents are, and that all I want is to feel connected and not seen as a distant stranger. So please don’t treat me like I’m somebody’s
equipment, or some little insignificat detail that’s only meant to achieve a task; but treat me like how you would amongst yourselves.
