Fireblog

Some time ago I had been asked to MC this event.

The participants are prominent members of the small business community and government officials from countries in Asia. There are 18 participating countries and when I looked at the positions, they are either a director of company or a finance director of a bank, or a director from government officials (dept of commerce, industry, etc).

Last week on Thursday, I had an emergency call telling me to go to the ministry’s office. Again it was a recording session. Many of our ministers are not fluent in English (meaning they speak zilt English). So when they have a speech in front of international audience, their subordinates contact people like me so that I can read the script, make grammatical corrections, then record the speech. yes. I actually talk to a microphone and my voice is recorded. The minister then listens to the recording and tries to mimic my intonation, pronunciation, etc etc. Its not as easy as it sounds. I have to record several copies, fast speaking, then medium, then slow.

Anyway, yesterday was the 1st day. The opening at the ministry office was a success. It was my 1st time as an MC. The Indonesian govt officials said to one another (I heard this later) “its just like in the TV”… They thought I was from the department of foreign affairs. It felt good getting approvals from people. The minister finally realized that it was my voice on the tape. Yes, he does not know whose voice is on the tape. His subordinates do not tell him. I think its because of the need to have leverage. The minister only knows that what he needs is provided. Does not matter how. This arrangement works fine with the subordinates. This way the minister is dependant on them. Anyway, I also received several congratulations from the participants saying the speech was very good.

After reading the participant list and looking at their fingers, quite a few of the business ladies seem to still be single. One in particular, from thailand, is very beautiful. Also very intelligent on the fashion sense. With a black suit and long pants, she would be the image of the business woman definition. It is no wonder that many of the guys (some very old) try and hit on her. It was very entertaining to watch these old geezers try hehehe…

As the most beautiful woman at the event, she had the task of giving a gift to the minister so I had to get the name correctly. Her name was [censored] (read: [censored]) so I got the chance to start a conversation. I asked how to pronounce her name. Smiled, thanked her, then went back to my seat.

On the bus going back to the hotel for the main meeting, I chatted a little bit more with her. With a lame line I said: “hello, I was just wondering… did I pronounce your name correctly?” “Yes, it was correct “[censored]”". “Well, thank you. I’m glad.” Turn my back and sit again.

A few moments later she asked me "do you know a place to have a massage?"
"massage?"
"yes, traditional Indonesian massage. In Thai, traditional Thai massage is very in right now. I would like to try a traditional Indonesian massage."
"ok, i'll see where you can go to find such a place."

That is the pre-event events
I will post the main events in my next post.

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