Once again I'm back from a long hiatus and I'm really going to try to post more regularly now. It has just been so busy that I've been having a really hard time finding the time to post much. But things seem to be calming down now so I'm hoping to have a bit more time to dedicate to this blog and to catching up on all the blogs I like to read!
I figured it was about time I posted some details about the job I started in April. I can't believe it's already been three months! Without going too much into particulars I am working for a hotel management company. The company not only manages hotels but also sells timeshares in the Caribbean.
I'm not exactly sure what title you would give my position, but I work in the timeshare department as the go-to French speaker. About half of the timeshare owners are native French speakers, and until April they didn't have anyone at the home office in the US who could speak any French to assist the Frenchies with all of their questions, especially when it came to the financial aspect of timeshare ownership. Basically I am in charge of all written and oral communication in French, translations, customer service, etc. as well as French and English collections. I know, collections sounds horrible, trying to get money from angry and dissatisfied customers, but it really isn't too bad. Besides, most of my time is taken up with the French aspect of my position, which is definitely more interesting for me and much more of a challenge as prior to this experience I rarely used French in a very professional setting since I was an English teacher and all. I find the challenge of writing and translating professional, well-worded and thoughtful correspondence in French to explain financial concerns and calm the angry or dissatisfied customer to be the most interesting part of my job in fact. I have always loved translation because I see it as a language puzzle that requires a great deal of logical thinking and reflection to solve it...just my kind of thing!
So overall I am happy with the job and I'm really thrilled to have found something that allows me to use my French, especially since that's what I went to school for. And I really enjoy proving all those people wrong who always said that I couldn't do anything with a French degree besides become a teacher!
However, while overall I like the job for the moment, there are definitely some things I'm less than thrilled with. Most of which would have been the case with any job in the US because it's just the absolutely ridiculous way things are done here, but a few are job/company specific.
In general you could say that for the moment I am professionally content, and definitely much happier professionally than I was in France. And in the end, at the very least, this is a good learning opportunity, a great chance to build my confidence in my French language skills, and a good experience to help me professionally down the road, whether that be in the US or France!
