"A Senior 2 student? Fluent in both English and French?"
After hanging up the phone, Mrs. Zhou helplessly shook her head.
Although she had agreed to let her daughter’s classmate come for an "interview," she really held no hope in her heart.
A teenager, even if they grew up in an English-speaking country and used English fluently, might still be unable to do a good job at translation.
Especially for this type of highly professional interpretation, it’s not just about needing translators with superb English proficiency but also having sufficient professional knowledge.
There are certain proprietary names that, without enough knowledge, even native English speakers might not be able to use proficiently.
Not to mention in Hua Country, how many years have the students been opening their mouths to speak English?
Perhaps in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, where middle school students have been competing from an early age, they could speak fluent English.
But in their small county, tsk tsk, it’s still the mute English of examination-driven education—no one fears doing exercises, but their courage drops as soon as they open their mouths to speak.
His daughter said her dorm mate had good English, probably also this examination-oriented talent.
Mrs. Zhou didn’t take her daughter’s words seriously at all; agreeing to let He Tiantian come for an interview was just so as not to disappoint her daughter too much.
Sigh, her husband was transferred to this county town for work three years ago, and she had followed, transferring her job here as well.
Mrs. Zhou didn’t want the family to be separated. After researching, they found that the county’s economic level was low, but the County First Middle School had excellent academic results.
During the college entrance exams in the past few years, students from the County First Middle School repeatedly achieved local municipal or provincial top scores.
Their hometown is a first-tier city that advocates for holistic education, the all-around development of children, but when it’s time for the college entrance exam, they might not really score higher than the kids from the county.
After much thought and careful discussion with her husband and their parents, the couple transferred, bringing their daughter along at the same time.
Their idea was simple, let their daughter attend middle school in the county and return to their place of household registration for the college entrance exam.
Thus, they might even achieve very good results.
Although both Mr. and Mrs. Zhou were considering everything for their daughter, letting a child who had grown up in a big city come to a small county with them and stay in a boarding school, only returning home on weekends or holidays—
Mrs. Zhou still felt sorry for her child.
Their own Zixuan was particularly sensible; she might not be the good girl in others’ eyes—after all, an androgynous beauty wasn’t acceptable to everyone.
But in the eyes of the Zhou couple, their daughter was the most sensible, most independent, most resilient good child!
They let their child down, yet the child did not become rebellious because of this but instead became even more excellent. Mrs. Zhou thus wanted to comply with her child’s requests as long as it didn’t compromise her principles.
Besides, today’s matter was also her daughter helping to resolve her anxieties.
If she hadn’t casually mentioned during a video call with her daughter, "The foreign party suddenly changed the meeting schedule, and the translator we booked can’t arrive in time, it’s hard to find a suitable interpreter on such short notice," Zixuan wouldn’t have recommended her classmate.
After all, her daughter took her words and her difficulties to heart.
So, regardless of whether He Tiantian could live up to expectations or not, Mrs. Zhou would still give her a chance to show her skills.
This was both supporting her daughter’s filial piety and helping her build a good relationship with her classmate.
With this in mind, when Mrs. Zhou met He Tiantian the next evening, there was no disdain or perfunctory treatment.
She followed normal interview procedures, treating He Tiantian, an under-eighteen high school student, like a real job seeker, conducting the tests one by one with rules but not without warmth.
Oral expression ability, listening comprehension, real-time translation, and then professional examination!
"..." Mrs. Zhou wasn’t a professional translator, but with many years in foreign trade, she could be considered somewhat of an expert.
Mrs. Zhou could form a judgment with just a cursory look at whether or not He Tiantian truly had the skill.
He Tiantian’s English had a pure American accent, with precise pronunciation, clear articulation, and none of the strange accent that foreigners would have when speaking English, nor any regional accents.
Mrs. Zhou nodded her head; He Tiantian passed the first hurdle perfectly.
For the real-time translation part, Mrs. Zhou would say a sentence and then ask He Tiantian to translate it.
Mrs. Zhou’s foreign language skills were mediocre; she might not understand every word of He Tiantian’s translation.
But she was good at reading people’s expressions.
If He Tiantian stuttered or encountered a word she didn’t know how to translate, it would show on her face.
Nervousness, confusion, or shame, and such nuances, Mrs. Zhou could spot at a glance.