Last week I took my turn and worked at the triage desk. I can’t say I loved it, and I hate working at a different desk. I guess I am just not a person being that flexible This week I have returned to my own desk, and I see lots of communication work need to be done to solve the dispute between different parties. It’s kind of like I will have to get involved in the argument of who should take the role to do the job.

In the past, when I needed to ring someone, usually I would spend a bit time to think ahead in my head about what I am going to say and how I am going to develop that topic, of course, IN ENGLISH. However, I guess I would have done that anyway even if I had to do it in Chinese. It’s a corporate thing that I can’t get away with it. I need to think through and speak carefully, not just language itself, also about the way how you interact with people.

But with now, it just becomes impossible. How could I do it when I have incoming calls all day around and need to ring out to people all the time? So, as a natural result, I noticed that recently I have changed my working style quite a bit. Now I just pick up the phone and do the talking while thinking at the same time. Sometimes I have no idea how to ask the question, investigate the problem or say “no” with politeness. But I just do it, tending to organize my speech and grab whatever the words coming out of my mouth at that very point of the time. I don’t know it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes I am amazed by what comes out of my mouth, sometimes I got tumbled with my tongue. But people always understood me. I don’t know how they work the things out.

But I know that I have lots of bad habits when speaking another language, such as speaking too fast or skipping the words. But slowly I am improving and I noticed that more often the times when I talk, I don’t really need to think ahead any more.

Another bit is that I found myself become a little pushy. I never thought I would be like this. Sometimes I push so hard on the people that I actually at the end felt a bit sorry for them. But I kind of had no choice. I had to stand on my ground firmly and defend what I am doing. Actually I feel quite about myself. If I told this to my previous boss in China, I guess she would not believe me