'J' the Crusader was formerly my student and he continues to write me on a regular basis.  I simply love his letters, and with his permission I post this latest letter here at Magic City.

When 'J' finally masters English Grammar, he is going to make a wonderful 'Romance' writer in the 19th Century style.

R.P.BenDedek.

Wie geht es Ihnen? Yes, I'm writing to you again. But this time the article is allowed to be shared [Advice from Chinese Students]  by your readers at Luo Laoshi's English Lessons.

It's another stupid thing with a serious appearance. But I can't help it to ask you, my friend to grant me the grace of being an article in your site. If there's anything improper, be my guest.

 
Last week, I heard from a classmate of mine that Transn was hiring translators and translation checkers and I was impressed by the atmosphere of interview that he mentioned in his experience with that famous translation company. So, I decided to offer a phone call so that my future employer may organize an interview for me. Since my classmate did the same thing a few days ago, I took it for granted that I would receive the same, I mean at least an interview, even an interview that tells you to go home and await the sentence.
 
However, things turned out to be dramatic.And I had to accept that it was only the beginning of my trip to my "Neverland"!
 
Before we start, I beg your indulgence for just a few lines, for I heartily suggest you all make yourselves acquainted with the background of this story.
 
As you may know, we were in our last days in campus and as you can easily find, that many a student was hunting for jobs as well as studying in libraries for the thesis. I was no exception.

Though we had been taught as English major students for over 3 years, most of us were more likely to end up with some other careers. I think that is a necessary method to enlarge our choice since there are so many English learners in China. Thus, pure English learners without other skills(I mean interest in business, education or politics), including me, were those who were bound to nose for English associated jobs.
 
Xu, a classmate of mine, told me one day that , he send his CV to a company called Transn days ago. There was nothing heard from the company since then , so he paid a call to the company and was informed by the authority that an interview was permitted. Then the boy went to the building by the street opposite our campus to be interviewed by Transn officals with some other interviewees. As he said later, the interview made up by a written test and a short conversation was relatively relaxing, though he was quite uneasy with the marks he most probably would get from the written test. The authority told him to wait for a phone call that would never come, as everyone knows.
 
However, the point didn't lie in here, but in that he applied for the job without some necessary certificates, say, TEM-4,TEM-8 or even CET-6. This would make sense because it showed that the company was capacity-oriented rather than certificate-oriented. To all good sisters and brothers of the same church of English major, he, the unfortunate seer had brought us gospel!
 
Then I did the same job like he did and hoped for a sudden call from my dear employer. I waited with my purest heart like a woman in love, but there was just silence. The waiting carried on until I surrendered my patience to impulse. I took the same action like he did again, yet the call was not just for ONE TIME, but for FOUR TIMES! Here I will share with you the detailed calls I paid to Transn my dear.
 
The first call:

To revenge all the patience I dedicated to Transn my dear, I dialed the lovely number(the latter four digits 8888 are considered to be quite auspicious in China).An inviting voice of female, a most disguised melody of Siren showed something of hospitality to me. I accepted it as a sign of good and told her my request politely. I asked her to get me to the line of HR department, she replied me with something that shocked my eager soul:"There is no one at the HR department. May I keep a message for you?"
 
Well! Did you hear anything like that? A busy company in its working day (the day was Tuesday) had nobody in a vital office! You may say that it was my fault cause I chose a wrong time of the day. Yes, if I were a reader who just stuck here, I might agree.But unfortunately, I am the writer and the victim of this story. I know something more ridiculous is waiting for your criticism.
 
The rest was worth nothing to say. I just left my name and telephone number and hang the phone like a stupid pursuer who was refused by his beloved but still believed his belle would suddenly changed her idea.
 
The second call:

I kept in silence after my first call. Then I decided to pay another call on the other day because my fellow roommates received calls from their wanted companies immediately after they delivered the CV.
 
The auspicious number greeted me again, but the voice in that box was another young woman. I entrusted her with the same request: "Could you get me to the HR department?" In Chinese, it goes.....
 
But the young woman said: ...... (There is no communication department here.)
 
"I meant HR department!" I repeated this for at least 4 times, and finally I had to take PRC as example, because in Chinese, there is a "[ren] "in the full form of PRC. Thank God, she finally understood it. But again, her reply shocked my innocent soul: "So, you mean HR department?" ...[len]
 
Ladies and gents, please notice here. She pronounced "ren" as " len", that is a sign of strong dialect of Chinese! Do you get what I mean? My point is that she wouldn't understand me unless I abandoned my standard Mandarin to speak some hybrid of Mandarin and dialect! That's terrible! I thought she might have thought that I spoke poor Chinese, and to her, "[len]" was the true Mandarin, a medal of honor!
 
May God reconcile with her!
 
Well, the call was not over,not even that I nearly fainted with my cell phone. She managed to get me to the line of HR department, and then something weird happened again. Another girl or some woman thing picked up the phone after a short piece of music during the process. When I was finished with my request, I was told that I dialed a wrong number! And the line was cut.
 
O, holy ghost! What kind of sins have I commited that I should be punished by these impenetrable fiends?
 
The third call:

For quite a moment, I managed to restore my faith and my strenghth to fight against these fiends. Anyway, I dialed the haunting number again, the same female , the same request of honesty and politeness, but another experience of surprise. The line was simply cut when I finished my last word!
 
It was a wild indignity, I knew. But even if they thought poor creatures like me should not insult the brand or the virginity of the female employees of the company with my application, I thought I should be treated with some manners that a man of dignity may least be supposed to enjoy. Whatever, I just wanted to know the truth and to walk away in a manner that befits the well-educated. So, I made the last call.
 
The fourth call:

I made it through, and I was confronted with the same fiend again. She was "wildly surprised" by my complaints that she linked me to a wrong line in her last operation during a call several minutes ago. Then, to the surprise of my own, I managed to deliver the same request again, to this cunning and rude female devil! She made up some stories that confused me. I thought she was telling me that there was no HR department at all. OK, whatever you say, just give your phone to someone knows something or at least to someone who didn't take drug in his or her work time. So, I told her just leave the phone to someone who was answering for personnel issues. She said the line was busy, and cut the line again.
 
I was wondering what the hell she meant. If she meant the line was busy indeed, who's the saint I was speaking to? Or she meant that the line of some personnel manager thing was busy, that meant there had been an HR department or personnel department existing. But how dare she tell me there was no such things? Perhaps the office of the same function in her company was called " the sucker house", so my old English was nonsense. If she just wanted to say"You got no chance", she can just speak in her hybrid, English or Deutsch without any sense of euphemism. But she chose some extremely unwise performances and made her company a piece of shit to me. I've had enough.
 
Well, this is not a happy experience or good example of job hunting, I have to acknowledge. But I heartily want it be read by you guys who are searching for jobs with some good will. And I want you guys know that all people are equal, whether you are male or female, employer or employee. Sometimes we may think those enterprises are our Lord, they are famous, well-financed,and influential. Yes, they are. But it doesn't mean we should abandon our dignity and rights. A company may pay you with money; God may grant you life. Your boss may discard you so you'll be endangered by poverty and hunger; Your Lord may punish you so sometimes you pay with your mortality to be reconciled with him.

But dignity is something that could only be graced by yourself and thus be enriched by others. If you ceased to protect it or to feel the existence of it, what you've lost will be far more that you'll get.

The Crusader!

If you wish to write in Chinese, please send that email c/- rpbendedek@hotmail.com