Many people dream about an adventurous life. They travel, go kayaking, bungee-jumping or quit their job and go abroad working as digital nomads. But for me adventures include not that, but rather serendipity and uncertainty which you can find everywhere. I love to discover not-yet-known artists and musicians, to take pictures of bridges with an old Japanese film camera on a rainy day or to go for a week to visit my friends in Berlin – just because this city offers a lot of unexpected things.
Nevertheless, I think we absolutely underestimate the power of the homemade, handmade adventures. Power of how inspiring it can be just to meet new people in your own neighborhood. You don’t have to save a lot of money in order to fly to another continent and see them. You just hear about someone and if you are curious enough, that’s enough for a small, handmade adventure.
That’s exactly how I met Caroline. A friend of mine rents an office in Altes Volksbad in Mannheim and told me that she has a nice co-worker who works as a coach. When I’ve heard her name, I had to smile because she has a very poetic Russian last name which actually means “nightingale“ in Russian. So I was very curious, contacted her and set an appointment.
It turned out, that Caroline had a wide array of interests. She works as trainer, as a business coach, she offers business games etc…What I found particularly interesting, Caroline knows firsthand how to work with interpreters because she some seminars she offers abroad and needs help in the case of exotic countries.
Talking about the work with interpreters – because it is so interesting to see it from the client’s side - we came to her favorite topic: the body language. Caroline said, you can be very motivated as a coach and provide a very inspirational talk, but if the interpreter doesn’t transfer this motivation and inspiration in his/her body language though interpreting very well, then the seminar would turn out fade, flat and boring. As interpreter who likes to hide in the booth, I never thought of it from this angle. Interpreters are always told their voice is very important. But the body seems to be a tool you cannot overlook in this case.
It reminded me of a meeting with a famous writer last year: as aspiring and inspiring she was, that all got lost in the precise but boooooring consecutive interpreting. You’ve seen the spark in her eyes and couldn’t recognize the same inspiration in the monotonous voice of a very good interpreter who tried to concentrate on the content but was a completely different type of personality.
Anyway, it was just one of the impressions and ideas from my conversation with Caroline. There were so many small precious things we discussed during this hour: music, colleagues, languages, growing a business – so many valuable ideas and examples… All that because people around us are so interesting and inspiring. All of that because the handmade adventures are waiting for you just around the corner.