Preposterous

Received an email from one of my juniors this morning. She has to do a presentation on an English academic paper to the class as part of the assessment requirement for one of our subjects. She wants to engage my service to translate this paper into Chinese. More than just translating, she wants me to list out the main or important points of the paper for her too! When I read her email, the thought that came to my mind was: “WTF! She might as well ask me to do her presentations slides too!”

Maybe she misunderstood my offer. Earlier, I told her that I can help her if she has any problems. Maybe I wasn't very clear. What I meant was I can help to explain parts of the paper that she doesn’t understand. Maybe I misinterpreted the intent behind her request. Maybe she wants me to translate the paper so that she can compare with her own version and learn. I just don’t know.

I really do understand why English terrifies (maybe the word 'terrorizes' is more apt here) many of my classmates and I do realize how difficult it is for them to read an English paper. Academic papers are no easy reading material, and even I sometimes struggled to grasp those profoundly complicated theories that are often put forward in some rather confusing ways. Yet, I strongly believe that if you put enough effort and time into it, you will eventually get it. And once you do, no one can take that knowledge away.