Internship Improvements

Friday, July 23, 2010

Things at work have been way better over the past couple of weeks! I think that part of this is because I’ve made more friends at work. I got dinner and then stayed up for the World Cup finals with some people from work. For the game we went to O’Malleys, which was absolutely packed! The majority of the crowd was cheering for the Netherlands, so it was a sea of highlighter orange. I didn’t stay for the end, but apparently the minority cheering for Spain went crazy when they won, and all the Dutch fans just sat quietly in shock. It was fun and exciting to see the game, but it got pretty gross and smoky. (I can’t wait to be back home where people can’t smoke inside.) Plus, we were all exhausted the next day and it was not fun to be at work…
Since then, I’ve definitely taken more initiative to reach out to these people and it’s fun to have more friends at the office. Most of the people I’m friends with at work are expats; a lot of the locals aren’t particularly welcoming, to be honest.
The work portion of work has also improved. Given my own difficulty adjusting to living here, I realized that it must be that much harder if you’re staying for a few years, rather than only a few months! I started talking to some of the expats on international assignment (aka I.A.s) about their experiences here, both personally and professionally, and through this was inspired to initiate my own little project. I’ve been interviewing lots of IAs, some single, some married, some with kids; some newly arrived, some leaving soon, etc. During the last week of my internship, I’m going to gather all of the data and do a write up of recommendations for how the company can help mitigate the challenges IAs face when they come work here in Shanghai.
Going to the Toastmasters’ Club at work has also been really interesting. Last week they asked me to give an English training. I chose to focus on the importance of stress/emphasis of syllables. I’ve noticed that sometimes they’ll stress the wrong syllable, and it makes it really hard to understand what they’re trying to say. To help demonstrate how important proper emphasis is, I compared it to tones in Chinese, and said a few sentences in Mandarin with improper tones. They really got a kick out of that :)
This week, I asked if I could try giving one of the speeches… in Chinese! The topic was “学中文怎么样？” (What is it like to study Chinese?). I wrote and memorized the 4-minute speech, but when it came time to present I got so nervous! I couldn’t believe it! My heart was pounding and I was starting to forget parts and have to look at my paper. After getting through the first minute or so, though, I calmed down a bit. By the time I got to the end, where I’d thrown in a few jokes, I was feeling a lot better. Getting some laughs from the audience didn’t hurt either.

For those who can read, here is the speech:
两年以前我开始学中文。学生都觉得中文是最难的语言。这是因为中文跟英文非常不一样。比方说，英文没有声调：是很大的不同！对老外来说， 中文语法也很难，很奇怪！所以，有时候我还会说错了。我会给你们一个例子：如果我问很长的问题，就可能忘记“吗”。
虽然学中文特别难，但是我还喜欢学中文因为这是一个挑战。每天我有一个小时中文课，也有很多作业。一个部分是翻译。有时候， 翻译句子是那么难我受不了！我的朋友问我为什么我要学中文因为中文课太难了， 也花很多时间。我告诉他们中文课也很好玩。
上课的时候我很高兴。我的中文老师们用很幽默的句子练习语法和生词。我的老师都是北京人。所以他们说的话有很多“儿”。我觉得听得不好。别的问题是，在上海有时候我听不懂，因为我习惯只说北京话。
不仅我的老师是很好的，而且在中文课我认识很多新朋友。同学和朋友是一样人是一个很大的好处。我们可以一起学习，一起做作业。但是，最重要的好处是在晚会我们可以用中文聊天。别的人听不懂！不幸哈佛有很多中国人，所以我们不应该用中文说秘密。