Communication Breakdown

While some of the “kids” at work can speak English fairly well there are many that don’t speak it all. But, that doesn’t always mean they don’t understand some English. They call me Matta and most of them have chosen to have English names at work. There’s Vicky, Katrina, Tom, Ken and John then some have chosen English words for names like Dragon, Ocean, Peak and Camero to name a few. Several of them are students at a local textile college so really they probably know more about the technical aspect of the job than I do. So I have to be careful and appear to know what I am doing at all times even though the machinery here has much newer technology than I am used to.
Last week I was told that I am harder to understand than some of the other Americans in the plant. The only thing I can figure is it is my southern accent as most of the other foreigners are from Canada or up North. So some people tell me to slow down when I speak which is funny to me because I thought southerners spoke slowly already. But, the more I talk with them the more they understand the best accent the U.S. has to offer. Someone from Boston would not stand a chance here.
Anyway here’s a funny story that caused me to write about work. On many cars I’ve noticed they have little green and red pieces of cloth tied under their rear bumpers. I’ve wondered what it meant since I got here so today I TRIED to ask Vicky what this meant. I tried my best to ask her what the green and red meant on the cars and at first she just told me the Chinese words for green and red. Green is Lu Se and red is Hong Se. Then she told me “green means go, red means stop”. She was talking about the traffic lights. I laughed and told her I knew that and tried to explain again what I was talking about, “the cloth people tied under their cars”. She then told me she doesn’t understand cars so she would ask Rain because he knows about cars. After a couple of minutes of heavy, serious conversation with Rain Vicky came back to me and said “the lights in the front of the car are very bright and the lights in the back of the car turn red meaning you will stop”. So at that point I told her it was not important and I would take a picture and show her what I was talking about. (Funny thing is when I have my camera I never seen them, when I don’t have my camera their everywhere) I now know from asking my boss that the red and green things are to keep evil spirits of a car crash away. Makes sense huh? Seems to work most of the time the majority of accidents I’ve seen involve bikes, which I have not seen many of the red and green things tied on yet, I guess there is not a good place to tie them.
So, this is China. Where some people don’t know that cars and traffic lights are international things that basically work the same everywhere, green means go and red means stop. I think a lot of people here in Suzhou came from rural parts of China where there are no cars, they came here to work. Now that’s not to say they are all so naive, some are very smart. I mean for them to be able to speak, read and write English as well as some do still blows me away. I’m just glad “most” of the time I can finally tell a taxi driver where to take me without him laughing at me and saying huh? But I still keep my card that says” 请送我到城堡和乔丽晶酒店公寓” “Please take me to Chateau Regency” When they don’t understand “Who Chow Lee Gin” (spelled wrong but the way it sounds) It can be a lifesaver especially on the weekends.