Home for a while

Three important events close together have allowed me to make the long trek back home from China to the UK for a while.

The most important and on its own worth the effort is my daughters 18^th birthday.  The second is to attend a wedding reception, and the third thing – you will have to guess and see at the end. Remember England are 1-0 up in the ashes and I haven’t been able to see any yet, the Xmas football fixture list including the fixture against forest this weekend, the snow and cold weather, moving house, Yorkshire Tea or the X Factor final (I have been kept up to date by my other friend in the London office, come on Matt)

This week has been one of perceptions that made me consider how so often we let our conditioning rule the way we think about things even when we are in completely strange environments.

Christmas preparations have come to Shanghai. The picture is taken in the lobby of the office block where we work. This is quite sensible. The office has a bright Christmas tree and hundreds of snowmen around the place. Which I guess is natural if you don’t get much snow, but I guess those reading in the UK the last thing you want to see. The building management company also play Christmas songs in the public areas, lifts, toilets. Bizarre hearing frosty the snowmen etc, as you go down in the lift. Fortunately I have not heard Cliff Richard or Slade.

I was asked the question – do they celebrate Christmas in China, which is a surprise and I guess a perception we have been conditioned to believe from the western side of the Himalayas. Most interestingly I was involved in a lunch time discussion with about 10 people in the office about religion. They were discussing how many times they went to church, and how important it was to them. (the discussion was being translated to me by various participants) Then I was asked whether I had a religion. At lunch in York or London I would have flippantly said yeah – football or cricket, however such was the intensity of the discussion this would have been highly inappropriate. I had to reply no. The table went silent. Then in a rapid babble, Why not, we thought all englishmen were Christians. As you can imagine the excited discussion and interrogation went on for a little while. This group at least had a different perception of the UK people. Same as the other way round.  It is interesting that such an open discussion happens in China – indeed a number of the staff pray, say grace openly before meals – where as it would be rare to see in many workplaces in the UK.

Next perception, I was invited with many of the local managers to an offsite two day training course which ran this week. I had happily accepted as had one of my expat colleagues (Australian) wanting to be part of the team. Only when talking to the organiser by chance did we realise the course was in Mandarin.  Obvious really it would be. So why did I think it would be in English, even the invitation was in Chinese – I had our assistant tell me what it said before I accepted. On discovering this they offered to rearrange and find an English speaking trainer or bring in translator for two of us. Surprising how easy it is to forget that everyone in the office uses a second language to work with me. How many times do we do that in the UK / US?

I have my local Chinese lessons starting when I go back. The agency came in and gave me an assessment. The lady was gentle with me after about four questions I had to stop her and say sorry I had no idea what she was asking. After showing her my notes the questions were much more understandable and she said I did very well! Obviously the night time practice of curling my tongue has paid off.  Fascinating how easy it is to forget or get into habits: in Dubai airport this morning one of the cleaning staff held the door for me – to which I said thank you – in Chinese. Poor guy looked totally perplexed.

Opened a bank account this week, with the help of Tracy from the office. The forms were all in Chinese , and she filled them in Chinese. Not a hope there then. Clearly the Chinese are not used to long names and the forms not designed for foreigners with middle names. Consequently on the printed forms that they give you back my surname is HOULDRI. Interesting process, fill in the form, take ticket, go to the teller when your number is called. Hand form and passport over, sign three forms (all in Chinese) which one of them I guess said I understand the terms and conditions… Handover 15 RMB, 10 to cover the annual fee and 5 as the first amount in the account. You then input a six figure pin at the counter (and again to confirm.) They hand over the Debit/ ATM card, and copies of all the forms you have signed. All done and ready to use in 10 minutes. Upstairs to the foreign exchange department to get the details I needed to transfer funds from the UK. Now compare that with the UK, a nation that claimed to be leaders in financial services – as long as you don’t want to use them.

Back in September / October when I booked my travel tickets with Finn air via Helsinki it never occurred to me to think through about the winter weather. Fortunately the Finn air staff went on strike on 30^th November and are still not back to work so my flight was cancelled. So with Marion’s help I am now flying via Dubai on Emirates.  It is longer but the service is great. They are trying to feed me again so I will end here. Not sure whether I will add to the blog until I return to Shanghai. You all know what I get up to at home. In answer to the question above – the third thing – a chance to spend some time with my family especially Geraldine. Though I wonder how long it is before they ask – “when are you going back to China?”