An open letter

Thank you very much for your inquiry. Although you are the first person to request an exchange of link, I am not against the idea. However, I have conditions that are not met.

You seemingly are an interpretation agency whereas I am an individual interpreter.

But more than that, I could consider an exchange of link with an individual interpreter with whom I have had an exchange of thought and discussion about our business and thus create a minimal reciprocal trust and respect. I am in the market for professional human intellectual  bonding with colleagues (that's a tough word to dare and use but read more) as a key factor for considering even minimal collaboration. Not that I am against collaboration. Quite the opposite. I am totally for collaboration.

But it is a challenge as interpreters are notoriously shunning at professional discussions and fiercely despising each others for the meek reason of competition. At least it is the case in Japan and seemingly the case elsewhere as far as I know.

I am providing interpretation services but I am not, thankfully, part of the ecosystem of mistrust and despise of so many interpreters I have met over the years. That's why I am writing a blog and sharing whereas the pro interpreters I have met are commonly sharing despise and arrogance when they agree to meet and have a gentleman (gentlewoman commonly) discussion. In most cases, they don't want to meet and don't answer to inquiries for meeting - fearing and sometimes justifying the hiding for reasons of "competition", as if competition was a transmissible disease like flu. But most of the time, they simply don't answer to mere mortals.

Having been through the failed tentative to create a professional gathering of Japanese-French interpreters in Tokyo - they would no want to communicate among peers - and failed equivalent approaches to many interpreters advertising their wares online, my requisite for effective link exchanges are set high, at the level of having direct communication (sounds like a four letter word).

There is a limit to the concept of competition, as competition is not a feature specific to interpreters. There are butchers in the same street and they are competing, and at the same time they belong to the same federation of butchers where they trade ideas and opinions about meat. And at times, they collaborate, sending the client looking for T-bone steak to the next door shop when they have no more stock, In another life, I will be a butcher. In the current life, I am an interpreter (among other activities) not belonging to the lonely world of professional interpreting. That is why although I appreciate your contact, conditions are not met to exchange links just because you happened to bump onto my blog. We have to build a bridge of minimal professional bonding and trust first. I invite you to dare and reach out.