Guangzhou Week 2
Being able to travel for work is great … you get to experience the working culture in different societies. What you experience when you travel for holidays is just not the same …
People in Guangzhou are very hardworking, very passionate about their work. Just look at the security guards, who take their job very very seriously. They check anything and everything when you enter, and when you leave the Company grounds. The guard salutes when he stops the bus (which takes the staff to and from work), and salutes when he waves the bus driver off. And I really mean salute …
People are generally loud in Guangzhou, they speak in vociferous voices … Its like they are scolding people all the time. Which in certain departments they really are. What we may perceive as a rude thing to say/do, they take it in stride. No doubt about it … people here are different …
I sometimes have a tough time here, not everyone speaks Cantonese. Since my Mandarin is basically the ‘hi and bye’ type … I cannot rely on it for a way of communicating with people who speaks it as a first language. Even my Cantonese feels terrible here … why? Because I am not used to speaking/thinking in Chinese when I am at work. Also because their Cantonese is a little different from the Hongkies … ‘Pak wa’ (literally translated white language) is what they refer to as Cantonese! LOL. Takes some getting used to, their language. It can be really frustrating when at work, because it is difficult for me to get the message across, can get really dampening. Suddenly you realise how good your Malay is. LOL. At the very least, I never really had a problem in communicating what I want.
Makes me feel really shy to be Chinese … Well, overseas Chinese anyhows. Because of the way you look, you are assumed to be one of them. But once I open my mouth, there is no doubt that I am not. Sticking out like a sore thumb? Seems to be my greatest achievement thus far …
