Nĭ hăo, wŏ de míng zi shì Lin!
Hello, my name is Lin!
… and I’m doing my 4th practice semester in our subsidiary TecAlliance Asia in Shanghai. I support their Sales & Marketing team.
I arrived on Monday, 11th September 2017 and first way brought me into our Shanghai office. I wanted to meet my colleagues and introduce myself. But I hadn’t much time to arrive there before some of my colleagues kidnaped me: They took me out to Lunch.
In the restaurant I was faced with the first cultural differences. Eating together in China is much different to eating together in Germany. Where in Germany everyone is ordering their own dishes, in China one is ordering different meals and everyone is eating them together. And of course we use chop sticks.
I liked it really much and I’ll keep going on with letting my colleagues order the different dishes. With that I always can try new meals even if I don’t know what I’m eating. Sometimes I can guess and sometimes I asked after I finished. So far I enjoyed almost everything I tried.
Besides the food, working is also different to what I’m used to. Accomplishing the stereotype, we’re all sitting in little booths within open space offices. Although everyone got a own little booth I never felt alone or lost. Every now and then colleagues come over to ask how’s it going or if I want some little snack.
In Germany I’m used to start working at 7am. Here in Shanghai most of us begin our work at 9am and work until 6pm. That’s not that bad for me, because in that way I can be part of Meetings in Germany, even with the time difference of 6 hours.
Well, I’ll spend some more time here and that’s why you’ll sure read some more of my experiences.
Until then best greetings from Shanghai! 😊
