United Nations at Geneva, Switzerland (September 25, 2025)
My cousin, Brent McLean is married to Nathalie Chiem who is a staff interpreter for the United Nations in Geneva. When she knew that Violet and I would be visiting her, she planned ahead and made sure that we could get the security clearance we needed in order for her to give us a private tour.
What would you say when given a chance to speak at United Nations?
If you want to know how difficult a job it is to be an interpreter, try playing a video in your native language and just repeat what’s being said in your native language (as in “English” to “English”).
Violet and Bill attempt to “translate” from English to English
Both Violet and I tried this just to experience how difficult it would be. Violet did much better than I did. I tripped over myself early in the process and had difficulting recovering. When I did, it was challenging to maintain a cadence and rhythm that sounded natural.
Now add the following factors:
Your translating in real-time from one language to another (and keep in mind that not all words will directly translate).
You are meant to be non-biased so you are intending to translate not just the words themselves but the meaning from the speaker.
Consider that the speaker often has an accent when speaking.
Consider further that the speaker is talking about something really, really important and attempting to maximize their limited time (usually about 90 seconds to 3 minutes).
Sometimes other interpreters are depending on your translation before “relaying” the content by translating into other languages. For example the speaker is sharing in Arabic, which is being translated to French (i.e. via Nathalie) and everyone else is translating from Nathalie’s French translation into the other languages such as English, Spanish, German, Chinese, etc.)
Now keep all of that in mind and remember that your human. As such, you’re likely to make a mistake, not understand something said, and or make a poor choice of words to represent what’s being said.
Listening to Nathalie Chiem both translate and then share her learning
Talk about an incredible exercise in mental fitness! If you are in your head, you’re dead. The moment you stop to “beat yourself up” about a mistake made, you’re out of the present moment and missing what’s being said right now. In other words, there’s no time to consider your mistakes while you’re translating. You can prep beforehand and digest what happened afterwards. While translating, you really need to be completely in the zone.
Bill, Violet and Nathalie in the “fish bowl” translation booth observing
This is particularly difficult when you’re interested in what the speaker is sharing. There are times when you may adamantly disagree with what the speaker is saying and you must still translate without bias. There are other times when you risk becoming engrossed in what they speaker is sharing; wanting to absorb what’s being shared vs. translating. These are all natural tendencies, emotions and urges and must be dealt with in real-time so that they don’t distract from the job at hand.
Fortunately, neither Violet nor I are translators so while we can deeply appreciate the complexity and intensity of Nathalie’s job, we had the enviable position of just listening, absorbing the material and having a wonderful experience understanding the evolution of human rights standards as they pertain to the specific rights of indigenous people.
Amazing opportunity to listen in as world leaders discuss the human rights of Indigenous People and how to protect and empower them
As we looked around the room, it was not lost on me that the majority of the sovereign countries who hold the power within the United Nations are mostly made up of colonists who are the very ones responsible for negatively impacting the basic human rights of indigenous people.
At one point a speaker from China brought up the example of a stark contradiction of the United States on the topic of Human Rights. The US has historically been seen as a champion for human rights while also providing the very weapons and economic support used to support genocide and the removal of human rights such as what’s happening right now in Palestine.
As John Pinna says, “At 80, the UN is still the best flawed tool we’ve got to make the world suck less—and sometimes, save it.” In other words, it’s the best we’ve got and while it tends not to deliver what most people want, at least it gets countries talking openly and serves as a path towards improvement (even it it tends to be a very slow path).
After United Nations, The Wrong Way to Hike to Geneva
Nathalie treated Violet and I to lunch at the United Nations cafeteria and it was fabulous. Lots of healthy food choices (and delicious deserts) and even probiotic sodas. At the time, it was drizzling a little bit of rain and much colder that it’s been in Barcelona the previous week. Violet decided to head back to the house while I forged ahead to explore the city of Geneva.
And, of course, shortly after we split up, the rain stopped, the clouds cleared and I had a warm sunny day for the time I went exploring. If we knew this would happen, Violet would have stayed with me, but this wasn’t what was predicted for the day’s weather.
What I did is follow the path to Geneva’s Botanical garden which is fairly close to the UN and a wonderful resource to be so close by. Many places to sit on benches and think. Lots of nature to help focus on the issues at hand.
So much to see in Geneva. I loved walking and taking pictures along the way. Lot’s to see. This is just a quick snap shot.
After a lovely walk around Geneva, Brent, Nathalie, Matheo, and Bastian took Violet and I out for one final celebratory dinner. It was a wonderful way to conclude our time together, which we thoroughly enjoyed.
As we drove off from the restaurant, we saw such a beautiful cloud formation coming down from the hills. What I love is that the clouds appear to be hugging the mountain and just hanging there. Beautiful.
