Incident 1:
Met a neighbor. Her first greeting to me, a stranger, was ‘ Are you from China or --- (my present residential country)’
‘None of the above. I’m from ----’ My reply.
‘Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m just friendly. You know, there are people of many different nationalities here now. Maybe you should travel overseas more to learn this… blah blah blah (continue for about 5 minutes….)’
Incident 2:
Our French teacher shared that in history, New Orlene was sold by Napoleon to USA for a sum of money and feels that it is a pity (jokingly).
Immediately we had a protest from our super patriotic American, ‘ Don’t ever talk bad about American ! blah blah blah...’.
But… He was talking about Napoleon !!
And this beautiful lady whose rich husband is a French, would never degrade herself by associating with fellow classmates even of the same ethnic as hers.
Incident 3:
We had the pleasure of an economist to teach basic economics to my fellow colleagues who lacked such background training.
A casual remark blurted out from this economist, ‘It’s simply an inescapable trend. The employment of -------people is so cheap and good,’
Room of laughter. The new associate from the country mentioned, a recently graduated scholar, kept silent.
Interestingly, all of our forefathers, who in fact immigrated from the same mentioned country just 2-3 generations ago, were also ‘cheap and good labors’ in the eyes of the British.
Hopefully I will get much less of such experience in my future MBA community.
Showing posts with label Life is interesting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life is interesting. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Services
The service at Dome Café at Alliance Francaise is impressive.
Example 1:
I arrived earlier than usual to revise for my first French test. The café was not ready for business yet but the kind waiter let me order a cappuccino anyway. My hot cappuccino was served ten minutes later, on the house ! The waiter even apologized for making me wait even though I was the one troubling him…I insisted on paying but eventually accepted his generosity.
Normal practice in this city:
Will be told to return later by a staff because the official business hour has yet to begin. Attitude of the staff varies at different places.
Example 2:
The filling of the chicken pie was cold obviously because of insufficient heating-up. The waiter took back the partially eaten pie, and served me a new one with additional salad.
Normal practice in this city:
Waiter may apologize, sincerely or not. Serve the re-heated chicken pie later.
My classmates, who come from different parts of the world, often lament the service standard here. There is room for improvement for sure. Here’s my attempt, after some mid-night chit-chatting and discussions with my night-owl friends, to explain such general situation in the country. Of course, it is possible to find great services here, but they usually demand a higher outflow of thy purse.
Perhaps this little illustration of a local phenomenon will help.
Long queues are generally perceived as a direct result of a demand for highly appealing product or service with limited supply. Thus, to avoid disappointment, some people develop the instinct to join the queue whenever there is one, or follow the majority to test the truth. It’s a common scene even at the key commercial district, where people typically have only an hour to grab lunch at those super-crowded eateries.
Yours truly here, sometimes unable to suppress curiosity, will ask those people in the queue if they know the prize for their suffering. Voila ! many of them have no idea at all. It’s akin to Forrest Gum’s box of chocolate, you never know what surprise awaits you! It might be a bottle of mineral water so promptly quenches one’s thirst after 45 minutes of queuing. Sometimes, it is a complimentary bottle of travel size shampoo, for one to look forward to the next trip.
Perhaps hours of queuing under the scorching tropical sun and in such high humidity is a great way to train one’s patience, and can produce similar effects of practicing calligraphy to calm one’s senses.
Imagine some of the service industry practices are brought here. Free food if you are not satisfied. Total refund, no question asked, within 30 days of purchase if you are unhappy with your purchase, never mind if it has been used once or twice. Complimentary free item if the service is not unsatisfactory.
In the name of exercising the right to receive great services, consumers can do many things… I can imagine queues and queues of people…
Example 1:
I arrived earlier than usual to revise for my first French test. The café was not ready for business yet but the kind waiter let me order a cappuccino anyway. My hot cappuccino was served ten minutes later, on the house ! The waiter even apologized for making me wait even though I was the one troubling him…I insisted on paying but eventually accepted his generosity.
Normal practice in this city:
Will be told to return later by a staff because the official business hour has yet to begin. Attitude of the staff varies at different places.
Example 2:
The filling of the chicken pie was cold obviously because of insufficient heating-up. The waiter took back the partially eaten pie, and served me a new one with additional salad.
Normal practice in this city:
Waiter may apologize, sincerely or not. Serve the re-heated chicken pie later.
My classmates, who come from different parts of the world, often lament the service standard here. There is room for improvement for sure. Here’s my attempt, after some mid-night chit-chatting and discussions with my night-owl friends, to explain such general situation in the country. Of course, it is possible to find great services here, but they usually demand a higher outflow of thy purse.
Perhaps this little illustration of a local phenomenon will help.
Long queues are generally perceived as a direct result of a demand for highly appealing product or service with limited supply. Thus, to avoid disappointment, some people develop the instinct to join the queue whenever there is one, or follow the majority to test the truth. It’s a common scene even at the key commercial district, where people typically have only an hour to grab lunch at those super-crowded eateries.
Yours truly here, sometimes unable to suppress curiosity, will ask those people in the queue if they know the prize for their suffering. Voila ! many of them have no idea at all. It’s akin to Forrest Gum’s box of chocolate, you never know what surprise awaits you! It might be a bottle of mineral water so promptly quenches one’s thirst after 45 minutes of queuing. Sometimes, it is a complimentary bottle of travel size shampoo, for one to look forward to the next trip.
Perhaps hours of queuing under the scorching tropical sun and in such high humidity is a great way to train one’s patience, and can produce similar effects of practicing calligraphy to calm one’s senses.
Imagine some of the service industry practices are brought here. Free food if you are not satisfied. Total refund, no question asked, within 30 days of purchase if you are unhappy with your purchase, never mind if it has been used once or twice. Complimentary free item if the service is not unsatisfactory.
In the name of exercising the right to receive great services, consumers can do many things… I can imagine queues and queues of people…
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Art of Capturing Attention
The Q&A session is always most informative if not entertaining.
When hundreds of competitors gather at a seminar or presentation, the challenge is to create an impression to the key decision makers, whose opinion, no matter how subjective they are, could influence our prospects for the next few years.
The problem is, how to make a smart impression by asking the right and intelligent question, instead of appearing foolish/immature/arrogant (due to ignorance) by asking those 'oh-goodness-could-you-please-do-you-due-research-and-exercise-your-common-sense' questions, maybe sometimes for the sake of voicing yourself?
As witnessed at those seminars when speakers are renowned national and corporate leaders, so as at sessions held by ad-coms.
Of course, at the other end, there is a proposition that simply by voicing yourself and making your presence felt, a person would have marketed himself/herself better than a quieter thinker, and hence can obtain more opportunities and thereby achieve more success.
It's a sophisticated art to be further polished at MBA school.
When hundreds of competitors gather at a seminar or presentation, the challenge is to create an impression to the key decision makers, whose opinion, no matter how subjective they are, could influence our prospects for the next few years.
The problem is, how to make a smart impression by asking the right and intelligent question, instead of appearing foolish/immature/arrogant (due to ignorance) by asking those 'oh-goodness-could-you-please-do-you-due-research-and-exercise-your-common-sense' questions, maybe sometimes for the sake of voicing yourself?
As witnessed at those seminars when speakers are renowned national and corporate leaders, so as at sessions held by ad-coms.
Of course, at the other end, there is a proposition that simply by voicing yourself and making your presence felt, a person would have marketed himself/herself better than a quieter thinker, and hence can obtain more opportunities and thereby achieve more success.
It's a sophisticated art to be further polished at MBA school.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Little Surprises
I derive some side benefits during the process of essay writing. It's nice to have surprises now and then :)
- radio songs past midnight are wonderful and soul smoothing. great way to keep myself accompanied and relaxed while my braincells sacrifice themselves in this war
- to download email via phone browser is much easier than what I imagined. the minus point: can't download any email attachment. Plus point: avoid falling into the trap of high downloading charges.
- radio songs past midnight are wonderful and soul smoothing. great way to keep myself accompanied and relaxed while my braincells sacrifice themselves in this war
- to download email via phone browser is much easier than what I imagined. the minus point: can't download any email attachment. Plus point: avoid falling into the trap of high downloading charges.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Exam is coming ...!!
Had a full day class last Sunday in preparation for my BIG exam 2 weeks later.
(oh glorious Sunday... when will I have my free Sunday...)
It's BIG because it's the final paper before I could add the title in my resume.
It's BIG because the torture will last one whole day - paper 1 in the morning and paper 2 case study in the afternoon.
I ought to utilise all free time to revise. I shall use my mind power to focus on this IMMEDIATE important task.
But... reading Economists or the newspaper prove to be more mind-stimulating and interesting than revising the > 50cm thick pile of notes. It does not help that many contents are repeating information phrased differently. And... some calculations are killing me...
It's ok... I will focus....I will focus...I will focus... (hynotising myself)
(oh glorious Sunday... when will I have my free Sunday...)
It's BIG because it's the final paper before I could add the title in my resume.
It's BIG because the torture will last one whole day - paper 1 in the morning and paper 2 case study in the afternoon.
I ought to utilise all free time to revise. I shall use my mind power to focus on this IMMEDIATE important task.
But... reading Economists or the newspaper prove to be more mind-stimulating and interesting than revising the > 50cm thick pile of notes. It does not help that many contents are repeating information phrased differently. And... some calculations are killing me...
It's ok... I will focus....I will focus...I will focus... (hynotising myself)
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Moving Forward
Having to start a new life so fundamentally different without all my close friends and family around is overwhelming.
To at last have the chance to fulfill a dream much delayed is exciting.
The journey began because the fear of living in regrets when I am older grew stronger. As life got absorbed into the hectic mundane, the energy to pursue one’s dream could be worn out.
Here’s wishing all of you a fulfilling life which embraces any change bravely.
To at last have the chance to fulfill a dream much delayed is exciting.
The journey began because the fear of living in regrets when I am older grew stronger. As life got absorbed into the hectic mundane, the energy to pursue one’s dream could be worn out.
Here’s wishing all of you a fulfilling life which embraces any change bravely.
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