I’ve never cycled this far before in one day, I just hope I don’t pass-out from fatigue or get hit by a bus

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Automatic post office

Clerk: ”You can use those self service machines to post parcels now”

Me : ”Don’t know how”

Just said this hoping she’d be quiet and stop asking me questions,  I wasn’t interested, afterall I was almost being served  now anyway.

Clerk: ‘Its ok someone over there will help you…its quicker’

Not content with my first answer, I gave her my reasons behind not using the machines

Me: ”Yeah that’s as well as maybe,  I’d rather speak to a human being…  Human beings don’t swallow your money or crash

or suddenly decide to not work.  Then when the machines break (and they inevitably do)  you have to  practically prostitute yourself in order to get you money back; you’re forced to fill in claim forms then then (if you’re lucky) will only have to wait 2 months to get your money back  -that’s assuming the cheque isn’t lost in the post…”

Clerk : Obviously didn’t understand a word i just said, still pushing the hard sell ‘ You really should, would save queueing ‘

Me: getting a little annoyed ‘Then the machine goes wrong, eats my parcel, get sent to wrong country etc… complain but get nowhere as it’s a self service machine and therefore the post office can’t be at fault….’

Clerk: Still going on about it ‘It’s easy – just like those self service checkouts they have in Tesco – ist quick and faster.’

Me: ‘Not really – its a pain if you use cash to pay – spits notes out unless they are fresh from the mint- it doesn’t let you bag things as you’d like and when it stops working it needing authorisation from a human anyway.

At this point I was able to get served by one of the cashiers and the convosation ended.

I am a fan of technology and for making things better and more efficient. But  I can’t help thinking that in this situation the technology is not great, and could perhaps be used in addition to the current set-up.  But what will really happen is that it will replace humans (i.e staff), not because it is particuarly revolutionary or good, but because over the medium to long term it is cheaper than employing staff.

I see this happening more and more in the UK, the de-manning of business in favour of machines because they are cheaper.  This is not just  a reflection of the type of economy and society in which we live, but also a reflection on the attitudes and expectations of those that live here, who accept such changes in the name of progress even though their long term social impact could outweigh the short-term financial advantages.

I remember thinking that in China they always had too many people doing each job, but actually,  I would far prefer to live in a society where people are getting out, working and paying taxes, rather than how things are in the UK, where many people are  being paid to sit at home and act as a drain on the economy.

Soon they’ll be more machines than people – your job is next!

This means anyone on the average salary fortunate to have £25,000 in savings can only afford a £100,000 place in london.

Slight problem with this is that unless you wish to live in a ghetto or a camp site, 100K will get you very little indeed. The average price of property in London is  £348,585. 

At that rate it’s going to take me 17.49 years if saving, not that I want to buy a house anyway..

There’s bits and pieces on the web on how to overcome this but I found them not so useful (especially as I don’t have the installation discs to hand for Chinese character support or ahem.. am running a pirate installation…)

Unfortunately you have to have admin rights to be able to set up Microsoft IME via the control panel and be able to write characters using the MS pinyin imput method. You also need admin access to be able to change windows so it defaults non-Unicode programs to use simplified Chinese – if you don’t do this when you load QQ all you see is squares…

There is a way around this if you don’t happen to have admin access to your machine i.e You’re at work . You can install NJStar CJK Viewer .

This will allow you to see characters in programs like QQ which are non Unicode even without the windows settings being changed in the control panel. It’s very useful for viewing but does have the habit of crashing things every so often so be aware…

I also use a great plugin for firefox that lets you type hanzi within Firefox without having to mess around with any of the settings in the control panel. It’s quick and can be disabled/re-enabled by hitting ctrl+f12. The only downside is that it only works within the Firefox window, and so cutting pasting out into external programs wont work unless you have chinese character support installed ..

You can even get into QQ and type hanzi this way by using a web based IM like imhaha.com, I have found this so timesaving.

Of course Vista can read hanzi built in but there are so many other compatibility issues I had with Vista I went back to trusted XP!

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On my laptop I always use a Chinese language installation of windows (so the menus/error messages etc are all in hanzi)

It’s a market-stall versions bought from the vendors in one of the underground markets in Changchun. Strangely it’s called ‘Tomato XP’ and the Microsoft splash screen has been replaced by cartoon pictures of the red vegetable superimposed onto the windows hill!

Apparently the chap behind this is now in Jail …must have been very unluncky to get caught in one of the crack-downs… almost certainly has been made an example of by the Chinese authorities

I find this the best way to overcome compatibility issues. Of course you’ve got to have some understanding of chinese to be able to do this, so it is not useful if people who have acces to your computer cant read chinese characters.

For the uniniated to type Chinese characters (hanzi) on a computer they need an input system that allows the phonetic pinyin system to let people choose which characters to use. Unlike what Hollywood portrays Chinese keyboards are the same as western keyboards, they are not the size of a room with a different character showing on every key!

Microsoft provide Pinyin IME, which is a standard input program for typing 汉字 within Windows. It’s ok but not brilliant as its not intelligent as it could be. It is simpler and slower to use than other systems.

There is another IME from sogou the search engine people (搜狗拼音输入法) that I find much more intuitive and faster as it learns and remembers what you have typed previously. It also allows the use of spaces so you can easily switch between English letters and Chinese characters without having to fiddle around with clicking on the menu bar or hitting shift.

Also there are some really cool skins for the Sogou IME and you can add your own designs here

sogou skin example

Google (谷歌拼音输入法) have their own version which looks suspiciously like Sogou’s version…Infact it is a blatant rip from Sogou’s code simply re-branded in the Google way! It’s quite amusing that Google have decided to use such typically Chinese cloning tactics – perhaps they too have finally realised that copyright law in China isn’t worth the paper its written on. I wonder how it is before we see other western firms copying Chinese technology…

I got to try one of these out the other day, It’s a Sony ebook reader which is meant to be the future for digital publishing. It’s really slim and about the size of a paperback and can hold over 100 books on it depending on the size of the hard-disc.  I work in digital publishing so hear a lot about these things and how they will revolutionise everything but I’m not so convinced

Granted It’s very clever and lots of design has gone into the screen which looks as crisp as I’ve ever seen a screen – apparently it uses real ink to make it look more like a real book.  Having said this I am yet  to stare at it for hours on end in order to see if my eyes hurt just as they do when you look at a computer monitor for too long. ..The battery life is almost endless with 7500 page turns before it needs changing.

I do see the advantage of being able to have 100 books on one reader, for students it could be a very useful resource and would alleviate the need to have textbooks for everything. For the traveller who can’t get editions abroad, they could have all the books they ever want stored in one location.  So for a select few it could prove to be a very useful gadget to have.

The problem is that at the moment there are very few e-format books that can be bought and downloaded from the major publishers. And so part of what I’m doing in my current job is to help get all the titles converted so they are available in E format.

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m quite cynical about this.  I don’t really think many people (beyond those in digital publishing!) will go out and by one of these devices with their own money. Firstly they’re really expensive, £250 is the figure going around, just for the reader – then you need books and they cost the same price as the print equalivant!

There’s no way I’d pay £30 for an eBook, even if it was the best book ever written.

The publishers still haven’t grasped the pricing viz-a-viz eBooks – they are paranoid that by undercutting the price of the print book they would be losing margin. i.e. people would buy eBooks and not print books and as 95% of their current business is based around printed books they’re obviously very keen to preserve the status-quo!

Sadly this Luddite attitude could kill off the eBook before it even has a chance to establish itself but perhaps that is what many in traditional publishing really want…

—————————

Print books have advantages.  They can be held, do not require batteries, can be thrown around and won’t break.  Some people even like the smell of the pages…   I think to many the tangible side of a book that makes it what it is.

Crucially for me, unlike other mediums (Music CDs, DVDs etc) often people want books because they are a book.

Of course there will always be the techies and the yuppies who want to buy the next gismo and show off, but beyond this I suspect there is only a very niche market of people who will use this kind of product as it currently stands.  This does not mean that in the future this won’t take-off, It’s just at the moment I feel the technology is not sufficiently advanced to make the product that much better than a printed book.

For me It still lacks a real USP.

When bendy screens,  flexible rubber like plastic, wifi connections and good colour screens become available perhaps this may change.

Perhaps a more important development to come out of this is that  traditional publishers -like my employers- if they are not responsive to the change from print to digital, may increasingly find themselves marginalised as more and more content is released online directly to the consumer – bypassing the middle-man that is the publisher.

Also retailers like Amazon are increasingly dealing directly with authors, which was traditionally a relationship maintained by publishing houses. I think if the big dinosaur publishers are not careful they may face  terminal decline as technology  to an extent makes their current business model  more and more irrelevant.

There must be 3 inches at most, but there are no trains and the buses have all been cancelled on ‘health and safety grounds’.   I daresay in the summer when there’s

a coupe of days with +30C temperatures, people will be dying from sunstroke, hosepipes will be banned and trains won’t run ‘because its too hot’.

It Just shows how useless people in the south of England are at adapting to different types of weather.

Other countries with far fewer resources at their disposal manage just fine. Afterall, the roads in Changchun are frozen for 3 months of the year

but they manage so much better than people do here, and on far fewer resources.    The media gets into such a hysteria over it all, making the situation worse than it really is.  Perhaps they just want something to report on??

I did actually try to get to work and started to walk the 6 miles or so, but I turned back and gave up as I was  constantly thinking  ‘who else in my office would bother walking this far to work‘ .   It’s cynical I know, but why bust-a-gut when you know that no-one else has bothered and you’ll get paid regardless….

In a better place  people would be rewarded for getting into work in such situations or simply would not get paid for not being there.

No excuses!   I’m sure if this was the case then most people would find a way into the office, I know I would!

Perhaps one day, people on this little island will learn to get on with life when the weather isn’t overcast and grey, (aprox 50 days per year) though I feel this will take such a seismic cultural shift, I doubt it will ever happen in my lifetime.

But now 100 yuan is worth less than 10 pounds…I saw a dodgy bureau-de-change in Chinatown offering 8.9 to the pound!!

This makes China suddenly seem that much more expensive! Exporters must be feeling the pinch with this kind of strengthening in RMB – Likewise Chinese salaries don’t seem as poultry as they once did. Personally, I don’t think the Pound will get back to 15 anytime soon, with interest rates here being so low and the economy apparently about to implode… As long as the Yuan is pegged to the US Dollar, and the Pound stays weak against the Dollar this will continue.

Don’t think I’ll be going back to China until the exchange rate gets better!

Exchange Rate

Things have died down, though annoyingly I am still busy with lots of things going on. Over the last few months the atmosphere at my work has changed, the CEO has announced a pay freeze (on everyones pay except his, some thing never change!) and I am certain that more people will lose their jobs next year (despite what the business says to the contrary).

I guess you have to be positive, so in a perverted way, it gives an ideal opportunity for business to offload the dead wood, those that come to work do very little (apart from watch BBC sport online) and blame the job cuts it on the economy.

——————————————————————

It’s that time of the year when people start to get colds and coughs and the perennial ‘flu bug’ goes round. What I’ve noticed over the last few weeks is that there is this mentality (certainly where I work anyway) where people will come to work anyway if they are not feeling well, in the hope that it will go away and they will grin and bear it.

You can’t question the work-ethic of such thinking, but for me it’s very short-sited, selfish and ultimately stupid.

I am very lucky in that I seldom get Ill, but I can’t help feeling annoyed by people that come to work with horrible coughs and colds exposing their germs and bacteria to everyone they get near to. It is selfish and stupid. So of course, those that are not sick soon become Ill and the cycle continues to the point where, last week, so many people were actually off work sick, normal operation of the business suffered.

So many people here can choose to work from home if they are not feeling great, but still feel up to working-they don’t even have to come into the office – So why is is that so many people come to work sick or coughing their guts up and spreading their diseases, when they should be at home?

Mis education -

People think it will go away (which to be fair, it will do eventually) they can grin and bear it. Macho attitude – weak to admit you are sick.!

Don’t understand/don’t care just how easy it is for you to pass a cold on to another person (i.e handshake)

Attitude and social values –

Some people think its bad to be Ill and will pretend they are ok. Don’t know why this is, may be a certain stigma is attached to people who can’t work, on benefits etc…

Importance –

Some will go to work as there is something they must attend/do.

Even if they are suffering from the plague they must attend.

It’s interesting contrasting this with China.  Despite it being generally dirtier in Chinese cities and less hygienic for sure, many in the west would think the Chinese are hypochondriacs and overreact to illnesses.

There are some nasty bugs in China that you don’t get in the UK, but the obvious reason for this kind of hypochondria (beyond the fact that nobody really wants to be sick) is lack of employment rights (i.e no sick pay/statutory benefits are almost non existent) and health care costing money.

You get sick, you pay.

I don’t get it, it’s one of the (very few) advantages of the social system that exists in the UK whereby you are legally entitled to not have to go into work if you are unwell. You even GET PAID (unless you work for yourself), If you get really Ill, you continue to get paid in some cases for 6 months or more. You even get free health care, ok you have to pay for a prescription, but access to see a doctor does not cost you a penny!

<rant>

I also think there is a way of doing things that has grown out of personal car ownership whereby people seldom wear warm clothes that were once worn in the UK; thermals, long coats, thick jumpers are a thing of the past. People get out of their warm cars and don’t spend long amounts of time outside like they used to – I think this is a contributor to sickness and Illness as it makes people more susceptible to illness, but I’m not doctor this is just a thought…

</rant>

Maybe I am cynical in my attitude, but I think that I am almost entitled to my days off work from sickness. If I feel unwell, I wont go to work. In the UK don’t feel I have to justify this to anybody, after all I pay more than my fair share of taxation that supports this very social system !!!  I’m not talking about abusing the system i.e. being ‘sick’ and claiming benefits from the government, rather than working. It’s more a case of making the most of what you pay for and not spreading your illness to others in the office.

In China when I was sick I would not get paid or would have to make up the hours missed. However, I paid very little tax, so when I was Ill I knew that I would have to pay from my own pocket. This is a harsher system and detrimentally affects those that are more susceptible to illness like the Old and the very young , but from a purely selfish perspective it’s better for me in my current situation!

I guess I am in a better position now to reflect upon these things, I guess strangely what’s best about this is that having the experience gives you the chance to put  things into a perspective that others don’t have; helps you see things in another light.

I spent almost 3 years teaching English in China full or part time and it was one of the most interesting and rewarding things I’ve ever done. At times it was tough, frustrating and difficult, but overall I still beleive it’s a positive thing to do if you ever get the chance.

Saying this,  teaching is an incredibly tiring thing to do. It is not like a desk-job – you have to constantly be on the ball and the amount of speaking/exertion of energy is quite high, which can really drain you.

I would say that it is more tiring than the 7am-7pm day I  have at the moment, even with all the commuting.

This is why teaching contracts seem quite few hours (if unfamiliar to the way things are), when in fact doing 9-5 solid teaching is almost impossible if you try to teach properly (I tried doing 60 hours in various jobs for a couple of weeks) and it will almost-kill you!

I think going to China for a semester or two to teach is something that can really help you to appreciate more about the world in which we live.

If you go in with an open mind then things are easier to accept and adapting to the different way things are done takes less time.

I think one of the most important things I came out of being in China was to learn not to take yourself too seriously. Smile, enjoy things- be positive.

Sometimes It’s very easy to get frustrated by constant intransigence but trying to change things by getting angry ‘the angry laowai syndrome’ is a total waste of your time. Realising that there is a time and a place certain things, trying to ‘teach’ your students in the classroom about the ‘real’ history behind China and the communists will only alienate yourself and could get you in trouble.

Learning to live with ‘It’s just the way it is’ and keeping an open mind I believe are probably the two most important things to embrace whilst teaching in China.

Often if you take things too seriously, you may find that the students won’t and you’re almost certainly find the administration won’t!

Taking everything into account, I am glad I have done it and I think I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to do so.

Here’s a list of some of the best and worst things about teaching in China that I encountered:

Ups:

Not 8-5, stuck in an office. Each day is unique. At times really enjoyable. Huge flexibility, give you a chance to do things you really want to do – learn the language, a musical instrument etc…

Immensely satisfying, being able to help others. Watching your students (those that actually come to class!) progress over the year.

Respect – being a teacher commands a level of respect that died long ago in the UK for being in such a job. You will be called by your title ‘laoshi’ teacher – takes a while to get the students to address you differently.

Meet new people most days, huge eye-opener on how others live.

Pick up new ideas, thoughts, understand other ways of life.

Learn more about oneself – broaden your own feelings, beliefs.

Long Holidays – Couple of months paid winter vacation.  Not having to worry about planning to take time off, enough downtime to actually do things you want to do.

Location – often will be within walking distance of work, little time wasted commuting.

Freedom to teach as you please (certainly at universities) -  you can create your own curriclum and choose how you wish your students to learn.  It is up to you how you decide to do this, gives you enough responsibility to make the classes unique.

Downs:

This list may be a little longer but that’s just because I’ve gone into some detail

Not a challenge. Once beyond the initial shock of it all, start to realise that the job is rather repetitive. Not realising full potential. Despite the relative level of good pay, not a professional career by any means. you are always the ‘waijiao’

Not professional, often taken as a joke. There just to make up the numbers – the system can make things almost impossible to do you job well at times.

Insecure – Not long term – Let’s face (however much fun it may be) for somebody with an ounce of ambition, you can’t be an English teacher in China all of your life. (There are some older guys ((and it is almost all men)) that are trying to do this – but this is because they can’t go back home for whatever reason)

Pay – stuck on the same salary forever, little room for increases. You will never get rich teaching English in China.

No promotion – you are a Foreign teacher and that is it.  You may move sideways into  other educatonal  spin-offs but the scope is  limited.

Stuck – It took me a few months to be able to get back into the job market back in the UK, It was really, really tough.

I thought it would be easier and that employers would be interested in my skills and talents acquired whilst in China, but actually besides curiosity it did not give me an advantage – more of a dis-advantage as my work-experience was often not deemed relevant enough and being a couple of years older meant I had more competition to compete with.

I have no doubt whatsoever that being in China too long will hurt your prospects of making a career ‘back-home’. I dare say if you stay too long, very few professional employers will want to take you on when you come back.

Furthermore often the experience you gain in China is only of limited worth /not really recognised in the west, in the world of work. Unless you have some serious connections, I have found that it cannot really be used as a stepping stone into a job back home.