Volunteer Activities for Y150

Learning from a friend of mine that Yokohama had been in need of voluntary interpreters for a Grand Exposition for its 150th Anniversary of the Opening of the Port, I applied for the job at the end of last year.
In the first training program, we practiced behaving and talking as volunteer interpreter. I wanted to make good use of what we had learned in the first training program not only in this event but also in other future volunteer activities. In the second training program, we received lectures by languages and talked about a lot of topics, including self-introduction, in English or other languages on a free, spontaneous basis. I was surprised to find that the organizer had prepared not less than 20 different badges--and even some sign languages--for volunteer interpreters, including English, Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Denmark, Czech, Russian, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, Indonesian, Arabic, Persian, and so forth. I admired the organizer for its great enthusiasm in this Exposition.