Flight HU890 somewhere between Beijing and Berlin
I am currently sitting on the airplane on my way back home to Sweden, a country that after staying in China for 9 weeks I picture as extremely clean, calm, quite and with crystal-clear air. I am very satisfied with my experiences these past two months. What has been most valuable for me personally is that I now have a clearer image of where I picture myself in the future. I have had time to reflect on what’s important to me when choosing a career path, where I want to be and under what circumstances. During my stay in Shanghai I have met many people who have left their homeland to work abroad, something that I have been wanting to do for long, and it has been very interesting to talk to them about their experiences and also the sacrifices that they have made.
The goal of my project was to implement test-planning procedures, roll out a measurement tool for operational efficiency and make improvements in order to increase the efficiency in the R&D test lab. When it comes to increasing the efficiency, I have to say this was harder than I imagined. My expectation was to be able to implement many improvements within the limited time for the project, but in reality most of the implementations will be made this fall. However, changes don’t happen over night and I hope that my project in Bolaite has created a good foundation for future improvements, raised the issue of efficiency in the test lab and that the future improvements will actually increase the efficiency.
In my first blog post I mentioned that besides the project itself, I thought the biggest challenges during this internship would be the language, the heat and finding decent vegetarian food in China. Here is a quick follow-up:
The language. For me this was the biggest challenge. Even though it is always possible to communicate and make yourself understood without words, I found it quite boring not being able to communicate with people on the street and that communication with some of my colleagues stayed on a very basic level. I also noticed two problems in communication with Chinese people; they don’t use much body language which makes it hard to understand what they are trying to tell you and if they don't speak English, they often make their own conclusions about what you are going to say before letting you start speaking. I still can't say one complete sentence in Chinese, but I picked up some useful words that I have been using frequently (but probably not always correctly).
The heat. This summer beat all temperature records in Shanghai since they started keeping records. I have to say it was bearable though and sometimes even nice. It was not very humid and I am glad I had AC both at work and home and also that there were some outdoor pools in Shanghai.
The food. Looking back I can hardly understand what I was worried about. The food was delicious and it was easy for me as a vegetarian to find food. In every restaurant they had an infinite variety of Chinese food, including hundred kinds of vegetables, mushrooms and tofu. I will miss the Chinese food, especially the dumplings!
What I will remember the most is probably all the friendly and curious people that I’ve met. I have learnt a lot about China, Chinese everyday-life and myself during these two months and I am very thankful for this experience.
Hannah