[freeier]

Originally Posted by dychen85

I need to vent out my fustrations too. This internship has been the worst experience of my life. I have never been humiliated like this before. Hk is not the place to go for internships if you are of asian descent and cant speak cantonese (Mandarin doesn count. I speak mandarin and they look down on my like im a cockroach.).They will make you into their janitor.

I dont know if this is a coincidence or something serious, but at my company there is a huge disrepency between my first week of work and interns of european descent. MY first day of work. THe HR department met with me for 10 mins and then the HR manager showed me my boss. My boss then instructed me to sit alone and clip newspapers for the next 4 days.
the tasks never seemed to get better.....

No one introduced me to the other members of the department. No one showed me around the office. No one took me out to lunch.
Fast forward 3 months. Monday, a new intern arrived from Germany. The manager greeted him, showed him around the office, introduced other employees to him and even took him out to lunch. Later, he got to skip the bitch work that I did and moved on to his own projects and he has a presentation right now as we speak.

How come I was never given the professional curteousy that he was given? Why didnt the manager introduce me to the rest of the team?
At first I thought this was part of the game. That doing bitch work was a part of the process... but i guess not....
The other interns had similar experiences as him... They are all of european descent though....

I am getting to the point where I dont care anymore. When the European intern goes to lunch with us.. they all speak english.. but when I am the only non Cantonese speaker to go with the team.. they will just speak cantonese even though they know I can only speak mandarin and english.

Sorry guys.. I am just soo fustrated today. I feel like I wasted my whole summer break.

interesting. so tell us, when the european interns are around, who were doing the 'shit work' ? yourself ? some perm staff ?

why i am asking ?
well, i am trying to establish if its coincidental or did they intentionally give such work to you and not to the other interns. isolate the issue in a non emotional scenario and see if the problem is really as what you state.

i am very sure all the non-cantonese speaking asian interns we have at our office does not have such discrimination, 1. we dun even get the non-asians in, 2. as intern, face it, we will let them do the more mundane work when there are some around.

[dychen85]

Originally Posted by freeier

interesting. so tell us, when the european interns are around, who were doing the 'shit work' ? yourself ? some perm staff ?

why i am asking ?
well, i am trying to establish if its coincidental or did they intentionally give such work to you and not to the other interns. isolate the issue in a non emotional scenario and see if the problem is really as what you state.

i am very sure all the non-cantonese speaking asian interns we have at our office does not have such discrimination, 1. we dun even get the non-asians in, 2. as intern, face it, we will let them do the more mundane work when there are some around.

They are all in other departments. The new intern is in the same department as me. All the other interns in other departments have their own projects and are treated much better. At first, I thought it was just the department, but after the new intern came i realized that it wasn't the case.


Obviously they have boring tasks too, but all the other interns have their own projects and are actually included into the department. Like you said.. as an intern you will do boring tasks when there is SOME around. well all I get are the boring ones.

Why is it that when the european is around my whole team speaks english and engage in english small talk. How come they never gave me the same respect. We both don't know cantonese. We also have the same rank. The only difference is skin color and that my family is from mainland china.

My supervising manager never even met with me 1 on 1 to discuss the goals of my internship!
All the other interns meet with their supervising managers regularly. I know I should of spoke up earlier to the company, but I just thought that would of made me look like a moaner and complainer...

[dychen85]

Repost fds fds fdsf ds fds

[Grungerock]

I am sorry to hear about your predicament. It looks to me that there is some discrimination going within the internship. Apparently i do agree it is quite true in what you have said, most HK will speak to you in cantonese even though you are chinese when they jolly well know that you are not able to speak their language.

But that really depends on the culture of the company, even be it MNC, and if the daily operations is run in a localize way ie local management, cantonese speaking... then you get to have "local type" style of running organization with cantonese speaking team. Frankly speaking, it is near to working in a "Local" firm with some "western" touch...

For those who works in MNC where the whole team daily operation is in english, then that is different thing altogether.

[Grungerock]

Originally Posted by ESW

You can come across what seems like really obvious rudeness in HK companies. I say 'seem' because I really wonder what the thinking is on their end. It seems so obviously rude to me but it can seem like normality to them so I wonder if they just find some way to justify it to themselves and if so, HOW?

There's real discrimination going on in your case... when does your internship end? I would just fantasise about when I get to leave - dream day and night and plan a real kick-ass time when I get home - I think you just have to grin and bear at the moment - can't see what else you can do really. I'm sorry it's been such a negative time for you. Not exactly 'modern' world city attitude going on in your office, hey?

It is a norm to them for the rudeness, you get to see them prevalent everywhere in HK, for example - them picking it on their own maids!

It's the same in China, ie. young kids peeing on the street with parents around, people spitting, people cutting cues, etc.. for them they do NOT see it as ANYTHING wrong...

So Norm = Normal = no justification.

[freeier]

well, isn't it your supervisor's fault more than the org ?
easy to put everything to racism..

anyway, going thru a bad time is also part of training. at least u are just an intern. don't expect too much. go with the flow and u will feel better and gain much more.

[erictby]

How far you can go?

How far you want to go?

Think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My ex-boss always say "lose mean win" (Mandarin: chikui jiushi ying)



Why....?
What should I.....?



Not all GENIUS are a SMART & SUCCESS person.

Which one you are? Genius? Smart & Success?
What's your aim? Genius? Smart & Success?


This post, maybe you can't get the real meaning now but one day in future you will understand, by your experiences. JUST REMEMBER IT NOW.

[freeier]

not knowing chen in real person, i wldn't comment too much. but the fact is that alot of young ppl are expecting too much from the intern stint and etc.

granted there are interns that get to do exactly what the rest of us are doing.. but there are far more that are there cutting papers and etc.

[Max]

Originally Posted by dychen85

They are all in other departments. The new intern is in the same department as me. All the other interns in other departments have their own projects and are treated much better. At first, I thought it was just the department, but after the new intern came i realized that it wasn't the case.


Obviously they have boring tasks too, but all the other interns have their own projects and are actually included into the department. Like you said.. as an intern you will do boring tasks when there is SOME around. well all I get are the boring ones.

Why is it that when the european is around my whole team speaks english and engage in english small talk. How come they never gave me the same respect. We both don't know cantonese. We also have the same rank. The only difference is skin color and that my family is from mainland china.

My supervising manager never even met with me 1 on 1 to discuss the goals of my internship!
All the other interns meet with their supervising managers regularly. I know I should of spoke up earlier to the company, but I just thought that would of made me look like a moaner and complainer...

Dude,...instead of ranting here and "venting your frustrations", ever thought about...um, speaking up??

Though I'm not condoning what's happening to you, there's no reason you should take this lying down. Speak up, man! Tell your boss and your colleagues! Demand some respect!

If your colleagues start leaving you out of the conversation, butt back in, involve yourself! If you're perceived to be an ass and find yourself alienated because of it, SO BE IT! There are worse things you can go through in life than the need to feel "accepted" by your co-workers who obviously don't really care much anyway!

If your boss continues to give you "bitch jobs", and if this type of work seems to be beneath you, then USE your HEAD. Try and engage your boss to give you something more challenging! I don't think he's wearing blinders to not eventually notice the effort you're putting in and reward you accordingly!

Dig deep, and prepare for the long haul. It'll be ugly, but at least your conscience will be clear, and you'll be doing something productive.

Come on, grow a spine already! Jeez...

[freeier]

cos they expect everything to be done for them on the silver plate and silver spoon and they only need to open their mouth ? 8-)

one thing for certain, while not necessary brighter, people from europe and US tend to be more aggressive in looking for what they want. while these sometimes turn ppl off, it sometimes work. asians, especially chinese/japanese, tend to think that they as 'guest' shld be treated in a manner they imagine to be like a 'guest'.. forgetting that they are no longer a guest once they are in the company!