Only four hours of sleep last night and now it's 11 pm. Dinners with customers last from 7 - 10 pm. That's a long time to sit on a hard wooden chair and listen to people speak to each other in a different language - all the while smiling and trying to listen with your eyes even though you can't understand a word. Then after 5 - 10 minutes my interpreter will tell me what they are talking about, or interpret something a person is trying to tell me directly, and half the time I can't hear him (he talks too soft) and the other half of the time I cannot understand the words he is saying - or he communicates it wrong. For instance, when he tells me "water door" I am supposed to understand that they are talking about former President Nixon and the trouble he created for himself with Watergate. Water door....water gate. Get it? Wow. Now ask a question like "are your residential homes 220 single phase? How about your industrial buildings? Are they like 380 or 385 volts? Are they 3-phase? The interpreter knows what a cat and a dog are, but has no clue about electricity or accounting or other matters related to business.
The factory is located just a few blocks from my hotel. There are about a dozen buildings in this industrial park that look just like ours. Kind of a drab green. We need to spruce the place up a bit so that we can bring buyers in and be more impressive.
The day I arrived I set up at a spare desk in the office of the Deputy (Assistant) Plant Manager, who also overseas Sales & Marketing.
This is a test to see if you're notified of this comment.
ReplyDeleteBethany
Good morning. Interesting to read your posts, but wow, you need more sleep. Good to hear positive results of meetings.
ReplyDeleteToo bad you couldn't have helped interview applicants for your own interpreter. I'm sure he will have a much better grasp on English because of you. So interesting, Paul! Thanks for taking time to write this. Keith and I are really enjoying each new post.
ReplyDelete