Asianliving.me

March 2, 2007 – In passing conversation with a Coffee Shop girl, Sally (Floor Manager)

I have been going to a Jack and Magic Pea coffee shop a lot recently because it has some really cool customer-friendly bits to it. You can pump your own lemon water at the table. The menu is full of so many different kinds of drinks, coffees, juices, and meals. Movies play on flat screens in the main areas as well as in the toilets. The music varies all the time. It also has ports for laptops! Of course, this shop is a product of Taiwan and has been rather successful in Zhuhai, with a few shops open within a couple years.

My offer here was rather simple. Gather the employees together and offer some English training sessions so that foreign customers can receive better service. When i visited the shop recently, i had been using Chinese to communicate. When i started using English with them, their only use was just to be looked at.

Here are a few things I learned when approaching Sally with the training ideas:

1. “Pretty girls don’t need to speak English, that’s why I work here to help the foreigners!”
a. So, girls in a coffee shop are just eye candy. Makes sense i guess.
b. Ordering coffee or food is so simple too. Just point at the menu, eh?

2. “My boss will send me to TPR for studying English. It is 1,000RMB per level. 26 classes per level and 6 total levels.
a. Here is a useful bit. Now i know what the going rate is for group lessons at the local Foreigner meat shop. It is a large chain of English schools. 3 or more in Zhuhai already. It’s big competition for me if I choose the generic route of English training.
b. GLV 和平English is much more expensive. About 1,000RMB per two week stay. I have heard that many of the girlfriends/wives of rich Guangdong men like to study here. Maybe this is a good part-time job option… “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
c. I’ve also learned that many little English schools dot the city selling something like English to people. That is a saturated market if I’ve ever seen one. But, i am always approached by people who want to study English more. So, i wonder how they can be served…?

3. Don’t waste much time with coffee shops. They might be interested in hosting an English Corner for publicity reasons. They basically need one person who can communicate when they need her to. This is the typical way to deal with the “English problem.”

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Without realizing it, I found common answers which put a silencing finish to my questions. It’s not a reason to give up. I know people need private tutoring and improved English interfaces. China is still not English-friendly. It will take time to produce the right mix of services that can be accepted by Chinese businessmen and the hospitality industry.

Don’t lose hope! There are still plenty of private opportunities that can be networked around the local cities. We just need to start looking at the teacher-supply side. That will take more Internet based communication. Foreigners tend to get lost in these massive Chinese cities. I’ll figure it out in due time.

– Ben杰明

Zhuhai-Qinglu-0644 — Waterfront near Nan You Hotel, Zhuhai

March 5, 2007 – 6:30pm Meeting with Sabrina, Nan You Hotel (Guest Services Supervisor)

When I first arrived offering free English lessons, the response clearly was…. “What? C’mon, what do you really want in return? There’s no FREE LUNCH,” which translates directly between both Chinese and English. My intentions were simple and I stated them clearly: “I have never taught Hotel or Business English before and I’d just like to practice here at your Hotel. If I succeed here, then I’ll try to offer this service to more hotels with foreign guests.”

Although still a bit skeptical, the Guest Services Supervisor was eager to oblige and meet me. Our first meeting happened tonight and I think I’ve learned so much from it. Really, I think this was extremely valuable, or invaluable in crazy English.

Here are brief summaries of the points, so I can recall them:

1. Departments using English most in their jobs- these include face to face with guests.
a. Reception: Check in/out, currency exchange, phone problems, etc.
b. Housekeeping/maids: Problems with utilities, rooms, materials
c. Coffee shop: Ordering, problems, bill pay, small talk.

2. Low level or “First Line Staff,” in the departments above, communicate with foreign guests most, of course.

3. HR department is best to contact first.
a. They organize the annual “Hotel English training course.” Attended by ALL staff. This is a service that is tapable, i think. Could be expanded to bi- or quarter-annual.
b. HR prefers the supervisors/managers who speak English well to teach in house. It’s not worth hiring outside help to teach the first line staff directly. Too costly.

4. Community style hotels rent out spaces for restaurants, massage parlors, gaming areas, and driving ranges. Those employees are separate from the actual hotel, but HR is still the right place to go to include them.

5. Remember: don’t ask too much of one person who is not a higher manager. They can’t just ask people to do things like in Western countries. It will isolate them from their colleagues and it’s unfair. Slowly, meet the others and test the waters until something useful surfaces. You’ll never get what u ask for! You’ll get a Chinese version. Accept this and you’ll succeed.

6. Hui Yi Shi- Meeting rooms: Rented out by the hotel for business purposes. Not offered for in house language training… at least that was “said,” but the meaning could be something else. Instead, the dorms were suggested as a meeting place.
a. HR director gave me a very typical response to something they don’t want to do… Basically, “We can have these English lessons in the dormitory meeting rooms, but unfortunately, these rooms are still under construction.”
b. Don’t solve their “problems” for them. They are only saying this as a way to tell you “no, we disagree, or just we aren’t interested.” Reminds me of when i asked for a 3rd teacher at our college… I pushed at that time and I learned the hard way.

7. English Corner is one style of training they might be interested in. Supervisors need experience with casual English encounters. This will support their further tasks when cooperating with foreigners.

8. FIND out where these Foreign guests come from! 80% of the the foreigners at this hotel are from JAPAN. I realized this a bit late. The HR director obviously has other priorities here.

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I’m starting to sense the real demand in this market. THIS is one way to find out the parameters of what I need to do. I’m just putting myself out there, for free, and getting slapped around! You should try it sometime, you might just enjoy what you find!

At the end of the day, I realized that so much research is needed before creating plans for what I want to do here in Zhuhai– create a consultancy for the Language needs of Resorts, Hotels, and businesses. Maybe I will have to seriously consider including Japanese to this plan…

– Ben杰明

Asianliving.me

Jack and Magic Pea’s Taiwanese Coffee Life

Zhuhai Hospitality – Nan You Hotel