I Love Working With Foreigners
Oct. 2nd, 2003 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaosvizierI love my job sometimes. Sure, it gets crazy, as recent journal entries have indicated, but there are so many benefits that make it all worthwhile. Many funny stories are directly derivative of the language barrier that everyone faces.
Of the 12 people in our office, only two, myself included, are natural born and raised American citizens. The others span the globe in terms of citizenship- China, France, India, Colombia, Spain, Ukraine, Niger, the Philippines, Egypt, Panama. It's a fun melting pot.
Today my supervisor (Spain) comes up to me and asks, "Hans, I have an English question. Is there an expression when you need a signature like 'put your hand cock here?'"
I would like to point out that at times I am extremely proud of my willpower. There are many times when a straight face is necessary, like playing poker, or when you must control your extreme rage in the face of abject stupidity, like dealing with any kind of customers or clients. It took quite a lot of that aforementioned willpower to not skip a beat or descend into a hysteric fit in that moment. With a more or less straight face I explained the brief history and proper usage of the term "John Hancock", and she nodded in understanding and returned to her office.
Questions like that make it all worthwhile.
Of the 12 people in our office, only two, myself included, are natural born and raised American citizens. The others span the globe in terms of citizenship- China, France, India, Colombia, Spain, Ukraine, Niger, the Philippines, Egypt, Panama. It's a fun melting pot.
Today my supervisor (Spain) comes up to me and asks, "Hans, I have an English question. Is there an expression when you need a signature like 'put your hand cock here?'"
I would like to point out that at times I am extremely proud of my willpower. There are many times when a straight face is necessary, like playing poker, or when you must control your extreme rage in the face of abject stupidity, like dealing with any kind of customers or clients. It took quite a lot of that aforementioned willpower to not skip a beat or descend into a hysteric fit in that moment. With a more or less straight face I explained the brief history and proper usage of the term "John Hancock", and she nodded in understanding and returned to her office.
Questions like that make it all worthwhile.
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Date: 2003-10-02 08:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-02 08:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-02 09:03 am (UTC)I work with like 30 people. There are like 5 americans including me. The rest are Indian, Indian,Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, Indian, and Indian.
The only funny thing that any of them do is that the one guy uses his middle finger when he points.
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Date: 2003-10-02 09:05 am (UTC)Then again, you work in a computer-based field. And that's heavily Indian-dominated. Those Vishnu worshippers with their twelve arms can really crank out the code!
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Date: 2003-10-02 10:03 am (UTC)I really want to tell the guy about the middle finger thing, but I probably wont. Instead ill just laugh about it.
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Date: 2003-10-02 10:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-02 09:13 am (UTC)I used to work with a girl who actually was born and raised here and she still said things that made me laugh. She was pissed at some magazine because they hadn't cancelled her "perscription". Then she told me she had a friend who had a cobra for a pet - but it was safe because he had the snake's "semen" removed.
I don't know how people like that survive in this world.
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Date: 2003-10-02 09:37 am (UTC)That's when the shit gets ugly.
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Date: 2003-10-02 09:55 am (UTC)That sounded way funnier when I first thought of it.
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Date: 2003-10-02 10:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-02 10:35 am (UTC)My boyfriend wants a pet snake...but I keep saying no. Maybe if it's a horny snake...
Nevermind.
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Date: 2003-10-02 09:28 am (UTC)