I’m going to live up to the hype by telling some stories from work this week, so here goes. We had an Asian customer ask for handles to be placed on their fabrics to assist with installation. The company made the decision to try and add the handles in Suzhou as opposed to shipping the fabrics back to the States for the rework. Keep in mind that this is the first time that any of the workers here in our facility have ever seen a Press fabric. The average age in the facility on the factory floor is very young; I would guess it’s around 24 years old. I know that this may not be understood, so I’ll try to explain (briefly) what we do. Paper machines require woven textile products to assist in the papermaking process. The woven products act as a screen to allow water to be removed from the paper pulp and to transport the pulp through the machine, pulp goes from being 99% water to paper as it moves through the machine. The Forming and Dryer division are strictly woven products, so think of them like a screen on the window (although each is different, this is as simple as I can make it). The Press divison utilizes this same screen type woven product but then we add thin webs of fibers to the screen (think of it like small, thin layers of a blanket), so our final product is much different than the other two divisions. Much heavier and thicker, on the order of 4 times the thickness and weight of the products they are used to handling. To summarize, we’re the same company but make dramatically different products all for the same industry. Each product has it’s role in the papermaking process. This is what I do in very general terms.
So the fabrics come in to the facility, we uncrate them and everyone gets their first view of a Press Fabric. It was very interesting to watch everyone come over and put their hands on the fabric to feel the surface, look closely at it and see how thick it is. They were like kids (like kids….they are kids) seeing something for the first time and being very curious. Many people would come over to the fabrics and get the touchy-feely. Once they got it out of the crate and placed it in a cart to push around, I think they got the first indication of what was to come. When they received sample of felts to work with, they got small, thin fabrics and not the monster fabrics that came in from the customer so they weren’t prepared for how heavy the fabrics were. They learned quickly that it took a group of people to move these things around. Just unrolling the fabric on the floor was very difficult. Rolling them back up was even worse.
Okay, I don’t bring this story up to talk about the difficulties of installing the handles; you’ve indulged me with reading this far so I’ll get to the point. I learned several things by working with this team to accomplish this task. For some days, there was someone there who spoke English (a supervisor or Gary) but for other times, it was me and them. I believe they understood English a little but I had no idea what they were saying. In many cases, it seemed they were shy about using their English because they didn’t want to sound bad (yeah, my Chinese was much worse). So I was forced to use very few words (it seemed the more I spoke, the more they backed away), basically playing Charades to get my message across. I’m sure from an outsider’s view it was very comical to watch me make large gestures to try and indicate things to the crew (movie, 3 words, first word…..). It was like a bad silent movie (you must pay the rent, but I can’t pay the rent…). Sometimes it took a little time and other times, it was rather easy. These are college age kids so they acted like college age kids, one even used my patented “hitch up the pants” move (they steal everything in China) to be funny and overstate his “brute strength”. I listened closely to what they would say to try and ascertain meaning but it didn’t work. If Gary was nearby I would ask what a phrase would mean, but many times I got it wrong when I asked him and I would have to point out the phrase the next time I heard it. Hou De, Hou De (how dah, how dah) was something I heard a lot. It means good or okay. I used it a couple of times when I was on my own and I may have got it right since they seemed to understand. Nodding my head was always understood (2 syllables, first syllable….). This was a very difficult task given that none of the guys were any bigger than me and it takes some muscle to move these things around (look it’s Big Papi). They worked very hard and were quick to take action once they understood what was needed to get the job done, and they got faster with each fabric. I was impressed with how well they worked although they tended to be joined at the hip. They would move as a flock rather than as an individual (it’s like women going to the bathroom). There were times when one or two could handle one task while the others worked on something else but they would not do this naturally. Everyone would move together unless otherwise directed. What’s a good charade move for separate? We worked through all of the fabrics and were able to get them reworked and back out to the customer by the agreed deadline. I have a picture with me and my posse below (I know, I'm huge!). I'd tell you their names but they did not have English names with the exception of Gary (on the far right, you might remember him from such photos as the Humble Administrator's Garden) and Leo (to the left of Gary, a supervisor at the plant)
So the fabrics come in to the facility, we uncrate them and everyone gets their first view of a Press Fabric. It was very interesting to watch everyone come over and put their hands on the fabric to feel the surface, look closely at it and see how thick it is. They were like kids (like kids….they are kids) seeing something for the first time and being very curious. Many people would come over to the fabrics and get the touchy-feely. Once they got it out of the crate and placed it in a cart to push around, I think they got the first indication of what was to come. When they received sample of felts to work with, they got small, thin fabrics and not the monster fabrics that came in from the customer so they weren’t prepared for how heavy the fabrics were. They learned quickly that it took a group of people to move these things around. Just unrolling the fabric on the floor was very difficult. Rolling them back up was even worse.
Okay, I don’t bring this story up to talk about the difficulties of installing the handles; you’ve indulged me with reading this far so I’ll get to the point. I learned several things by working with this team to accomplish this task. For some days, there was someone there who spoke English (a supervisor or Gary) but for other times, it was me and them. I believe they understood English a little but I had no idea what they were saying. In many cases, it seemed they were shy about using their English because they didn’t want to sound bad (yeah, my Chinese was much worse). So I was forced to use very few words (it seemed the more I spoke, the more they backed away), basically playing Charades to get my message across. I’m sure from an outsider’s view it was very comical to watch me make large gestures to try and indicate things to the crew (movie, 3 words, first word…..). It was like a bad silent movie (you must pay the rent, but I can’t pay the rent…). Sometimes it took a little time and other times, it was rather easy. These are college age kids so they acted like college age kids, one even used my patented “hitch up the pants” move (they steal everything in China) to be funny and overstate his “brute strength”. I listened closely to what they would say to try and ascertain meaning but it didn’t work. If Gary was nearby I would ask what a phrase would mean, but many times I got it wrong when I asked him and I would have to point out the phrase the next time I heard it. Hou De, Hou De (how dah, how dah) was something I heard a lot. It means good or okay. I used it a couple of times when I was on my own and I may have got it right since they seemed to understand. Nodding my head was always understood (2 syllables, first syllable….). This was a very difficult task given that none of the guys were any bigger than me and it takes some muscle to move these things around (look it’s Big Papi). They worked very hard and were quick to take action once they understood what was needed to get the job done, and they got faster with each fabric. I was impressed with how well they worked although they tended to be joined at the hip. They would move as a flock rather than as an individual (it’s like women going to the bathroom). There were times when one or two could handle one task while the others worked on something else but they would not do this naturally. Everyone would move together unless otherwise directed. What’s a good charade move for separate? We worked through all of the fabrics and were able to get them reworked and back out to the customer by the agreed deadline. I have a picture with me and my posse below (I know, I'm huge!). I'd tell you their names but they did not have English names with the exception of Gary (on the far right, you might remember him from such photos as the Humble Administrator's Garden) and Leo (to the left of Gary, a supervisor at the plant)
It wasn’t an easy task but it reinforced the need to at least grasp a rudimentary grasp of some Chinese. Before I left the US, we taped episodes of Ni Hao, Kai Lan to see if starting from a kids level would be beneficial. It turned out that this show was even more annoying than Barney, even the kids were telling us to turn it off. So it’s back to struggling with Chinese for me or when I leave here I will the world’s foremost expert on Charades.
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