I used to hear people say Singapore produces “bilingual talents.”

I’m nore sure I fully agree. Most people are fine at passing their mother-tongue exams (actually, many of them struggle), but real bilingualism is something very different.

For me, Chinese is my native language, and I started learning English since as early as I could remeber. I spent half of my life in a Chinese-speaking country, and the other half in an English-speaking one.

Still, it is quite difficult. And I learnt it when I tried translating.

It started with Wait But Why. I was obsessed with the blog. The writer had this strange mix of humour and depth, and I there is a lack of similar contents on the Chinese Internet. So I reached out to the corresponder on Wechat and tried to translate it. I thought it would be straightforward, maybe even helping me with my General Paper.

It turns out: very hard.

I was still in high school and had no training. Long paragraphs felt endless. I’d stare at one sentence for half an hour because there was no perfect way to say it. After a while, I realized translation isn’t a natural talent you just have – it’s a skill you build. The patience part was real.

Later, I discovered the TED Translator program, and that made things more fun.

I translated the Chinese subtitles for this and other videos.

It was on a platform called Amara. All TED videos like TED talks, TED-Ed, TEDx are transcribed and translated by volunteers, we bid for videos and translate the subtitles. They were then reviewed by more experienced volunteers. TED talks had just exploded in popularity back then, so it felt very meaningful.

Unfortunately, they moved away from the Amara platform and adopted a new one. I never learnt to use it. Translation became just one of many side explorations. But the curiosity lingered. For a brief period, I even considered a translation minor, and took TRA2101 Basic Translation and audited a Interpretation course. Both were surprisingly helpful.

Eventually, school stress took over and I drifted away from it.

But someday I will pick it up again. I am pretty sure.