Can you please give me an English Name?

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I’ve been very lucky to meet a vast array of people while I have been here.
Of course all the staff are very cute and you can’t help but have favorites.
The Bar crew: Simon at the helm, very shy on the surface, and a bit more serious than the rest. But a lovely boy who takes his job seriously. Then there are the two loveable ratbags, Mack and Sky.
Mack informs me that his name is really Mark, but that someone mis-spelt his name tag, so he has become Mack. I actually think that the name Mack is better suited to his personality. When the song on the ipod playlist comes on at about 10.30pm – I come dashing out of the office singing “That’s not my name, that’s not my name”. (Sorry to those of you who are not familiar with the song). Mack speaks quite good English, and I can communicate with him quite well, I just have to remember to keep it simple.
He was standing out front of the restaurant late one night, and spotted me walking toward him. I was trying to get past without him seeing me (fat chance) because I had just had a massage and was a bit dopey looking. He gave me a funny look as I walked toward him, and then as I got close he leans over and says “Are you drunk?” Little smart ass!!

Then Sky, he’s a character and a half. We play this game where we walk into the restaurant and pretend not to see each other. Holding three fingers up in front of our faces so we can’t see the other person. Doesn’t sound that funny when I write it. Guess you just have to be there.

Demon is just that. She’s a real spitfire, but boy can the girl work when needed. She just picks up the pace and she’s off. She knows exactly what needs to be done, can spot things a mile away, anticipates what the customer needs and then makes sure she orders the other staff around when they need it.

And then there’s Angela. Drop dead gorgeous, ditsy as they come. But a lovely lovely girl. All the blokes are just a little bit gaga when she’s around, and all she needs to do is just float around, without a care in the world. She truly wouldn’t notice if the sky was falling in on her. She’d just flutter those false eyelashes and come out just fine at the other end.

The waiting staff by and large don’t have as much personality. Not sure why that is. There’s Andy and Lilly and Jenny. Jenny has come out of her shell and she’s not afraid of me anymore when I walk towards her and say hello. She knows that I’m going to try and get her to say something in English. For the first 2 weeks all I got was giggles, but now she’s progressed to speaking a few sentences and getting a little bit of confidence.

Then of course there is my right hand man Weng. At first I was introduced to him as Moe. Apparently his cousin Johnny gave him that name and it kind of stuck. I’m not sure what prompted me (the little voice in my head again), but I felt it necessary to ask him what his Chinese name was, and what did he prefer being called. He looked a little surprised, but he said that he actually preferred his real name. Weng – pronounced Wong. As in “some ting wong”.

Weng does not speak very much English.
But the reality is that he speaks much more English than I do Chinese, so in that respect he is leaps and bounds in front of me.
He gets frustrated at himself when he can’t get his point across to me, and if it’s important enough, he’ll race around to find someone to help make me understand.
He’s the most hardworking person I’ve ever met, and he carries the responsibilities of the world on his shoulders. He is responsible for the cash flow. Not an easy responsibility in a place like China.
You see, every business spends far more than their cash flow allows.
So it is a constant juggling act of deliveries, paying just enough to ensure the supply, but not too much and certainly not the entire amount.
So meanwhile, the debts mount up, and the decisions have to be made about who gets paid when, and how much.
This is a lot of responsibility for a man who in all likelihood is not being paid a huge sum.
Whose wife and 2 children (one of which is a 3 month old baby girl) live very far away, and whom he hasn’t seen in person since he arrived here at the beginning of August. It’s now almost the end of October.
Weng shows me photos of his children on his phone, a very proud father, and I am reduced to tears at the thought that he has not seen them in all that time.
He sees my tears and it’s hard for me to convey the emotions that I’m experiencing. I guess it must be the mother in me. It’s hard for me to imagine being away from your 3 month old since she was born.
But he doesn’t complain and seems accepting (a trait which the Chinese do very well) that this is his lot.
I tell him that his baby girl is piao liang (very beautiful), and hope that this explains the tears.

Man is our head Chef. He’s not your typical Chinese looking guy. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe his descendants are of mixed background. I have great respect for him, he’s very open and friendly, yet he runs his kitchen like a well oiled machine. You hardly ever hear of a drama in the kitchen and on the odd times when they have made a mistake (and this is quite rare), he acts swiftly to fix it.
I asked about his family, and he told me he has a wife and a 3 year old little girl. He showed me pictures and she has the cutest, cheekiest little face. He told me her Chinese name, and then asked if I could think of an English name for her.

This is not the first time I’ve been asked to come up with an English name for someone. One of our regular group of guys from Mitsubishi come in with their Japanese Boss (who I sold my first Wunderstein to!). One of their group didn’t have an English name, and they came over, asked me to join them at their table and share a bottle of wine with them. Pity it was white wine, but of course I drank it anyway. They then explained this poor chap’s predicament, and asked if I could help.
The pressure! Imagine giving this poor guy a name that he has to live with for the rest of his life! So I gave it some thought, asked a bit about him (to make it look good) and asked his Chinese name. After much consideration, I gave him 3 options.
1. Samuel – for those formal business occasions where he may be entertaining someone important and wants to make an impression.
2. Sam – for his work colleagues and friends.
3. Sammy – for his mates and close family (and for when they all get drunk together).
He seemed quite happy with these choices and solemnly informed me that he would choose Sam. He liked the way it sounded and it was short enough to be easy for everyone to pronounce. His mates gave him shit and insisted that they would call him Sammy anyway!.

Back to Man and the naming of his daughter. I said I would think about it, and then of course promptly forgot. So two nights later when Man asked what name I had come up with I had to do some quick thinking. Oh Yes! I exclaimed I have it. But I’m not sure that you’ll like it because it is a bit unusual.
Delila.
It sounds like the word ‘delightful’ which is what your daughter looks like.
Mmmm. He’s not so sure (can’t blame him really, neither was I).
So then he gives me a few more ideas. He’d like it to start with W. Because her family name is Wang.
I gave him Wendy as an example and then he realized the error of his ways.
OK, he suggests, what about the letter M. Money starts with M so that is a good enough reason apparently.
I have a quick search of the internet and come up with Mia. It’s pretty, just like her. It’s short (just like her at the moment). And it means (oh crikey I forget what it means but it was good at the time).
He’s gone away to think about it and will let me know tomorrow. He’s a hard customer to please!
But he did make me Chicken Parmiagiana as a special request tonight. Quite an effort when you consider it’s not on the menu, and to achieve this dish I had to combine the ingredients from three different menu items.
I’m lucky I didn’t end up with Chicken Schnitzel, topped with pasta puttenesca and a margarita pizza on top!!

Man’s next in line is Joe, Assistant head chef. He’s got such a sweet personality and he’s very keen for me to teach him some English. I try to come up with some useful words for him, and he tries very hard to pronounce them correctly. As my time at Wunderbar was coming to a close, he was very upset that he would be on days off and may not be able to say goodbye to me. We worked out that he would start work just as I was leaving on the last day, so I did get to say goodbye to him. He held my hand and looked very sad, but I told him not to worry, I’m sure to be back.
On my last morning, I met Wilson from the kitchen in the carpark, just as I was arriving. I told him that it was my last day and he told me “me too”. I can’t believe that he is leaving, and when I asked him why he got very shy and almost embarrassed. I told him that when my translator arrived, I wanted to talk to him and find out what is going on.

Wilson is a slightly dumpy (for a Chinese person) young man, with a lovely smile and quite good English. There is much that he understands, but even more that he doesn’t. I find that if I persevere and try several different ways to explain something, then usually something will click and he finally gets it.
Wilson was my man in the kitchen who remembered that I liked toast, and that I bring down my coffee pot to be perked every few days. On the days that I didn’t bring it down, he would come to the office to check to see if I needed it done. What an angel. I offered some coffee to him on about the 2nd morning, and he seemed to quite like it. So now each time I make coffee, I ensure that I leave a little bit of milk for him so that he can have one too!

Eventually Trista my translator got to chat with Wilson, and it seems that he was not getting on with one of the other kitchen staff members. Things got so bad that he started looking for work and was offered a job at the Sofitel. He decided to take the job and gave his notice. In the meantime, the staff member that he had trouble with left! By then it was too late and he was already committed to the Sofitel job. Both Andrew and I assured him that if he changed his mind, or if it didn’t work out then he should get in contact with Man and get his job back. A few days later, when I returned to Guangzhou for 2 days, I found out that the Sofitel job had semi fallen through. Because of the Asian Games they told him they weren’t allowed to take on any new staff, so he would have to wait until December. Personally I think they are giving him the run around, but at the end of the day he needs to realize this himself.

So my first 4 weeks have come to an end and I'm heading home (for 1 1/2 days) before flying to Shanghai to visit with the Doddridges.

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Photos

Simon
In charge of the Bar boys and girls

Mack
That's not my name

Weng & Joe
Taken at KTV night. How they love their Karaoke

Veal Parmigiana
Special request!

Sky during a photo shoot
Check out the Wunderstein in the foreground. Holds 1 litre of beer. Cheers!

Comments

[betty]

you looks so happy
your blog is so nice.i will be your fans.