Auckland, New Zealand and Kakogawa, Japan

What do they have in common? Well they're sister cities! Isn't that interesting? On Friday at the end of my class I was asked to come downstairs to meet with one of the top city guys. (This is bad. I can't remember his exact title. Or his name, though I never did get an introduction... He could be the mayor.. or a chairman... or a councillor...) His English is great, I was surprised! There was a slight New Zealand accent when he spoke but it was as if I had been speaking with an English speaker (Like an American or Canadian who had spent many years in New Zealand and developed a New Zealand accent) so my brain went automatically into relax mode. However when he spoke some sentences and the grammar was a bit off, my brain got confused. Poor brain. So easily confused.

He asked me if I could correct the English on a letter before he sent it off to the Mayor of Auckland, New Zealand. That's when my brain went into high power freak out mode.

Brain: You want me to correct your English on an important document between sister cities? An important document? Me? Really? Are you really sure about this? Well what if I can't think of the right wording? What if I mess up? What if something terrible happens because I forgot to punctuate properly? This is too much stress, I'm going to turn off now.

So for five minutes I just sat there with this red pen in my hand, looking over at the letter.... and blanking. I could point out what needed fixing but my brain refused to turn back on and help me figure out how to word everything nice and politely (The man had asked me to do my best to make it as polite as possible). It didn't help that the man didn't sit down and instead was hovering over my shoulder like I was a student at an important exam.

I'm pretty sure that because of the freak out my brain made a few mistakes. Looking back on it now, I do know of one that I made. "So and so will accompany." was the original sentence, with the "so and so" actually being a group of people and the name of the group having been forgotten at the moment. I had changed it to "so and so will accompany me." But later on I thought about it and decided that this would have been a better wording "so and so will be accompanying me." And then I realised that he is probably not even going as this important document was just a thank you for having the people there and so it should have been like this: "So and so will be accompanying them on this and that"

I had asked if I could take it home and bring it back or email it back to him with the proper wording as with more time I'd surely be able to think out some better phrasing. But that was just double speak for Hi. Yes, I speak English, but I don't do well under pressure. Unfortunately... he had to send it out today (I'm assuming that it's an email).

But I try not to think about the fails too badly as I'm sure the Mayor of Auckland will understand that there is a language barrier and will make allowances for it.

... Right? I'm right, right guys? Back me up here.