Shenzhen

I'm at the Shenzhen airport, waiting to board a flight back to Singapore. I've been in China for a week, for a business trip. I was invited to teach an advanced profiling class here.

The class here was much smaller than in India. 6 students instead of 15. The trainees were much more motivated, and had finished the pre reading and suggested material before hand. They were also very smart people. This meant, I had a much easier task here than in India. I could start the class at 9.30 and finish by 5.30!

When I see the talent in this class, I can understand why China is going to take over India's lead in IT too! Politics within the office doesn't hold back deliverables here!

And look how the chinese are adapting! They know it is a bit difficult for foreigners to pronounce, let alone remember their names. So every employee is required to give him/herself an English name before they start working. They are also trying very hard to pick up English. The only thing I needed to change in my teaching style to teach a group of Chinese trainees was to speak slower. My little understanding of Mandarin came in handy too.

The govt is definitely trying to make it easier for foreigners to visit/work in China. They have English directions on highways (at least in Shenzhen), subway stations, and of course in tourist spots. Where people can't tell you where to go, they walk with you a little distance, so they can point you in the right direction. Of course they have a long way to go before non-chinese speaking people are able to find their way around on their own, but they are trying.

The air is very polluted here tho."In the beginning God made man, and then everything else was made in China" is almost a commonly used proverb now. China is paying the price for having so many factories and not very stringent regulations. The first two days that we were in Shenzhen, all three of us (two other colleagues were visiting too) had bad headaches due to the pollution! I know most major cities in India have imposed the use of CNG in public transport vehicles. That cleared the air up a lot. They should probably consider that in China.

All in all, I had a very good trip. I'm very happy with the success of the training. In fact, I finished everything before lunch on Friday afternoon.

I also tried food from different regions of China. We went to a different restaurant everyday. And who says Chinese food isn't spicy?! You haven't tried the right stuff yet! I got a sore throat eating this food and trust me that doesn't happen to me easily coz of spicy food!

Oh ya facebook really doesn't work here! I think the hotel found a work around, which is why I could access it there. I can't open the website here at the airport. It's weird how tightly the govt controls self expression here. But thinking of freedom of expression for the press in terms of India, I sometimes think it was a bad idea. There are a gazillion news channels that try to sensationalize news and make mountains out of mole hills.

So who am I to decide how much freedom of the press and the individual is too much or too little?

Maybe we should have a debate on the pros and cons of freedom of expression based on the current situations in India and China. :-)

Ok almost time to board. Just put down an array of haphazard thoughts here. hope it makes some sense! :-D