Lingua perfecta
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| Kevin Lin says he was involved in all ministerial visits from China to |
Chinese boy who knew only a few words of English when he joined university is now top interpreter for British govt leaders
About 40 years ago, when Kevin Lin began to learn English as a middle school student in eastern China, his first lesson in the textbook was "Long Live Chairman Mao".
"And the second lesson was even better, 'A long long life to Chairman Mao'," Lin, 53, recalls of his English class in Putian, Fujian province. The lesson was for about two hours a week. "It was very little," he says of the time of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) when most higher education ground to a halt; and educated people were sent to the countryside.
Today, after being awarded a PhD in linguistics at Lancaster University in 1991, Lin has served as the lead Chinese interpreter for the UK government since the mid-1990s.
He has interpreted for the Queen, all the prime ministers since John Major, and, on occasion, for other European heads of states and governments.
After the "cultural revolution", Lin managed to get enrolled into university in 1977, one of the first batch of university students in a decade.
"At that time, only one in 100 could gain admission, because there were very few universities," Lin says. He got into Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) to study English literature.
The 75 students were divided into four classes according to their academic performance, and Lin was at the bottom of the class.
"Apart from the 'Good morning' greeting from the teacher, I didn't understand anything else. During the break I went to the corridor to have a glass of water and I saw somebody equally embarrassed. So I said to him: 'I didn't understand a word', and he said: 'Neither did I'. We became very good friends after that."
Lin then set himself a goal of moving up one class each year so he "spent every single second learning English", even going to the extent of avoiding going home during holidays and had "no time at all" for a girlfriend.
The reward was that he graduated at the top of his class in 1981; and given the acute shortage of English teachers in China, Lin turned overnight into a full-time lecturer at the UIBE with no training.
"So yesterday you were still a student and now you are frightening students. It was an awfully scary experience."
But Lin says he quickly got over it and became very popular among students. After teaching for about five years, Lin got the opportunity to study abroad when the World Bank gave the Chinese government a loan to fund degree students.
The UIBE was given 20 PhD scholarships open to both faculty and students, and "I remember one test involved up to 200 staff from the university. I did well in both rounds and I scored second overall".
While most of the 20 successful applicants chose to study in the United States, Lin was the only one to pick the UK.
"The perception was that if you want to learn English, the UK was the place to go".
It was also partly because Lin had decided to learn Received Pronunciation at university, when he worked on his pronunciation and intonation "quite intensively for two years".
Lin "toyed with" an American accent a couple of times, but always quickly reverted to the British.
A few years ago, he says he was complimented on his British English thrice during a transit stop in San Francisco. "First by the policewoman checking my passport, second by the staff at the transit desk and the third time by a cleaner who told me where to go."
But when he first arrived in Britain, Lin's understanding of the country was limited. He says he had read maybe one book about the country: Higher Education in Britain published by the British Council.
The scholarship was meant for Lin to be trained as an English teacher but he did not find his calling in the career. He targeted becoming a businessman, and "interpreting wasn't even on the radar".
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The late 1980s was a time when there were few Chinese people in the UK and Lin says there were only a dozen in Lancaster University.
"We felt like a rarity," he said. To know more about the country, its culture and people, Lin spent a lot of time socializing and worked for a Chinese restaurant, earning 2 pounds an hour (about 10 yuan according to the exchange rate then).
He even spent a year selling life insurance, which is "the toughest thing to do" as it "is something nobody wants", to hone his salesmanship skills.
It was a commission-only assignment with no starting salary, "but the benefit of that was I visited about 300 local families in the northwest, talking about their personal life, personal finance. The job really helped me understand the life of people in this country".
In 1995, when he had been working for the BBC World Service as a TV producer for three years, a chance phone call once again changed his career path.
It was a call from the China Britain Business Council (CBBC), which was seeking help from Lin's department for a Chinese interpreter to receive a trade delegation from China.
He soon got his second job, interpreting for John Major when then Chinese vice-premier Li Lanqing visited No 10 Downing Street.
Lin considers his third job, interpreting for then British prime minister Tony Blair during then Chinese premier Zhu Rongji's four-day UK visit in April 1998, as the formal start of his interpreting career.
"That was the first time that I was involved for all four days. (I was) scared to death," he says.
Following that job, Lin became a regular interpreter for the British government and, to advance his career, he applied for UK citizenship and got it in 1998. He then quit his work at the BBC to focus on interpretation.
In the following years, Lin was the interpreter for every China visit by a British prime minister. He went with Tony Blair three times, once with Gordon Brown and last was with David Cameron in November.
"Between 1998 and 2005, I was involved in all the ministerial visits from China to the UK, too many to recount," he says.
Of the politicians he has worked with, Lin says Blair was the most impressive. "At the time, he was young and full of energy, and enjoyed giving impromptu speeches. It was extremely challenging for the interpreter."
As for Cameron, Lin says he changed his opinion of him completely, "because prior to meeting him my view of him was from the British media".
"And of course media will never be less than 1,000 percent critical of a prime minister.
"But working for him has made me realize that he is extremely intelligent, thinks very fast and knows what he needs to do with China within a short time," Lin says.
"So I returned home and said to my wife we probably should vote to
keep the Conservatives in power, because my impression is he'll be the right person for UK-China relations."
Though his current job as the lead Chinese interpreter for the British government is "the best personal experience you can possibly have", Lin's dream is beyond that.
He opened his own company, KL Communication, in 1999 to offer interpreting and consulting service for businesses across China and Britain.
The company is now ready to open its branch, KL Translation in Beijing next month but Lin says his bigger dream is opening his own interpreting school.
"I am taking every small step towards that. For the rest of my career that's my goal."
