TRAVELLING THE WORLD
It’s been a crazy three weeks.
I’ve done 17,000 miles, three continents and four countries but I’ve had such
an exciting time.
My first stop was at our offices in
Beijing. It’s eight years since thebigword opened here and it’s incredible
how the Chinese home market is developing. It’s also great to see how
well our Beijing office is doing. I enjoy visiting this office and our Chinese
staff are very sociable -, whenever I visit they always organise a karaoke
evening! Ever since I was ejected from the school choir for being tone
deaf school, - - I’ve found singing in public a huge ordeal to be
avoided at all costs… but with the disco lights flashing and encouraging noises
from the audience, what else can I do? Before the visit to Beijing, I
actually bought a Beatles CD so I could practice on the flight over before the
event. I decided to practice A Hard Day’s Night, which of course goes
something like “it’s been a hard day’s night and I’ve been working like a dog.
It’s been a hard day’s night; I should be sleeping like a log”. Just as I
was getting into it I got prodded in the ribs by the passenger in the next seat
who told me she would like to be sleeping like a log and it would help if I
could stop making such a dreadful noise. You can imagine how nervous I
was facing another performance.
Normally at these events we’re served
traditional Chinese food - but this time it was one of my favourite Chinese
foods: pizza! ( you can see a a picture
of Wade Wu, General Manager of our Beijing office and me with this pizza along at
the end of the blog – yes I did share it…)
Dealing with the time differences for
me is a big challenge and on one of my flights I scared the flight attendant as
I awoke from a fitful sleep and asked them”am I going to America or back to
England?” They looked very suspicious.
One of the positive things about
differing time zones is that they’re really helping thebigword service our
customers, as we are able to pass work from one time zone to another whilst our
customers are sleeping, so we can still continue to do their work. This
is a substantial help not only with Project Management, but also with
recruiting the best linguists in the right place at the right time.
It’s interesting to see how the
culture changes from one office to another and especially the use of language.
In our New York office they talk about ‘reaching out’ and then someone will
respond ‘great, I‘ll circle back to you’ etc. In China the majority of
our staff speak really good English but when issues are complex, we do use our
In House Interpreters. But, overall, I am amazed at the high level of English
spoken in Beijing.
Our Tokyo office feels very
different. Our staff are extremely polite, of course, and understanding
how far to bow in itself is a skill… but, as polite as they are, they are also
very forthright. Our Japanese customers are probably the most demanding,
which is good for thebigword as it helps keep our standards high – but, funnily
enough, whilst they can complain strongly if they’re not happy, they are also our
most loyal and supportive customers.
Next stop was the UK, where our
headquarters houses 400 people from 34 different nationalities, so I suppose
the culture there is a mixture of everything. It’s also interesting to
note the customs in relation to gifts. In the UK, the giving of gifts to
staff and customers is a big ‘no–no’ but in China and Japan it is often
expected that a small gift of relatively small value is given as a sign of
appreciation. With this in mind, before leaving New York I went shopping
with my wife and we bought 50 baseball hats with the New York emblem on as a
gift for our staff. I got to the office early and put a baseball cap on
every desk. Nervously, one of my Chinese colleagues approached me and said
thank you for the hat, but I have to tell you that there is a thing about the
green hats (I’d given 10 out). In Chinese culture, when a woman is
unfaithful to her spouse/boyfriend/husband, it is commonly referred to as ‘Dai
Lu Mao Zi’ or ‘wearing a green hat’. Thus, he said, you’ll never see
anyone wearing green hats of any kind in China.
Have a great week. Next time, I will share with you my new
experiences in my new career as a model for Armani. Yes you heard that
right!
Larry
