China likes to be seen to be constantly developing, all progress is good. Everything should be bigger and better than everyone else's. If that's what they want to do, then fine. But, at least they could get basic things done efficiently and teach their people about using initiative and doing things in a more efficient way.
Yesterday, I had a chaotic and unproductive day, which I am going to blame on the inefficiency of Chinese things. Firstly, the school forgot to pay the power bill, so the power was cut. This, I think is due to the amount of forms and processes you have to go through in order to pay something at most schools. Luckily, I had printed most of the things I needed for the big round of ESL assessments I am conducting this week. So, while others were stressing about not getting things printed for their lessons, I was dealing with another Chinese inefficiency - sorting my copies from my inefficient printer and photocopier (yes, I get to do these jobs now that I no longer have a teaching assistant!). For example, if you want to copy a document of five pages, the copier will print all of page one, then all of page two etc. So, you then have the delightful job of compiling all the papers in the correct order. Then, if you want a document printed in colour, the printer will only print one copy at a time (very, very slow when you need 10 copies of something).
Then there is the lack of initiative. Here is a conversation I had with a teaching assistant not long after the power had gone out.
TA - Anna, I will be late to ESL this morning because I need to copy this document for Year 3.
Me - But the power has gone out, you can't copy anything anyway.
TA - Yes, but Year 3 need it.
Me - I'm sure Christine will understand that you can't do anything because the power has gone out.
TA - That's okay, I will wait to copy it.
Me - But, we are not sure how long the power will take to come back on. Why don't you go and ask someone when the power will return then come to ESL. Your teaching group won't have a teacher.
TA- Okay.
So the TA headed off to ask about the power and we didn't see her again for the rest of the morning. I sure hope that she got that document copied!!
On Monday, I experienced another inefficiency - the delights of the Chinese postal system. I needed to pay my entry for the Great Wall half marathon and then post my entry form. Easy, I thought! Not so. Firstly, I had already tried to do it but after arriving at 4.05 on Friday, was told that I had to be there before 4.00pm. So, I madly biked there on Monday and arrived at 3.55pm. I handed over the invoice with the amount to be paid and the payee (all in Chinese) and much talking was done before they had to go and find someone who spoke English. Wu Jia Qi then came to help me by translating. To send money to this account, I needed to create a password which I need to give to the person receiving the money so that they can withdraw it without problems. The next inefficiency came when I posted the paperwork - did I want express or slow? Express takes 2-3 days and slow takes 7-10 days. How an envelope can take 10 days to get to Beijing I'm not quite sure, it only takes 12 hours for a person to get there by train!
There is another little insight into the way of life in China! It truly baffles me sometimes!
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