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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no subject
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)