Best PDA Chinese Dictionary

One of this year's CHEMBA participants asked me what Chinese dictionary application I installed on my PDA. The answer is PlecoDict, available at www.pleco.com.

If you're studying Chinese or going to China and you have a PDA, I recommend this software wholeheartedly. It's immensely useful because it saves a LOT of time when looking up characters, and is way more convenient than carrying around a dictionary. Depending on how you use it, it might also be good in conversations, as you can pass your PDA and stylus to a friend, and have them write out a character that you're having a hard time understanding.

Another good software is DimSum, available for free at www.mandarintools.com. DimSum can be installed onto a PC, and is works similarly. One great thing about DimSum is that you can copy Chinese text into its "Notepad" window, and move the cursor over the text for instant look-up. This feature saved me a lot of time while I was at my internship.

Beijing and Shanghai pages ready

Over the past week or so, I've been sorting, renaming, resizing, editing, and formatting my pictures from Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo. So now I have some webpages ready and linked on the main page. They're not the only pictures from August to November, but I thought they'd look better sitting on a separate page than with the hum-drum daily stuff I usually put up.



I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out, but I've been using Mozilla's Firefox as my browser and I can't get the "thumbnail-to-larger picture" links to work right. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, but they seem to work OK in Internet Explorer, so maybe it's not just me.

At any rate, enjoy the three new pages. And if you normally use Firefox, too, I'm sorry, but you may need to use IE to get the larger pictures.

Final CHEMBA presentation

Today was SuYoung’s birthday (and I won’t say which one). I also gave my final presentation for the CHEMBA program, an analysis of the American Trading Center program in China.

[The short version is: it’s a good program that could actually boost U.S. exports, if only U.S. companies knew about it. However, because the government doesn’t advertise, it will most likely remain small and therefore ineffective at reducing the U.S. trade deficit.]

So it’s just smooth sailing from here.

There was a mixer in the evening where I got a number of business cards, plus a whole buffet of Hawaiian food. There was Kalua pig (shredded pork with cabbage), li hing pineapple, poké, and lomi lomi salmon. You probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but as Hawaiian soul food it really hit the spot.

Tomorrow we move from one couple’s place (where we had been staying) to another of SuYoung’s friends. (We didn’t want to wear out our welcome too quickly.) Unfortunately, it means lugging our suitcases across the city again. *sigh*

In the evening, we have our graduation ceremony and reception.

Internship Last Day, upcoming plans

Today's the last day of my internship, though not the last day I'm in Shanghai. If you're curious about what I did at work, here you go: "What I did in the Shanghai Consulate-General Foreign Commercial Service"

And if you're interested in my final internship paper -- An Analysis of the American Trading Center Program -- email me and I'll happily provide it.

As for upcoming plans, here's what going on next:

Friday, November 10 -- The office is going to be closed for Veteran's Day (that's why today's my last day) so SY and I will be packing up the apartment. I think the landlady will stop by, too.

Saturday, November 11 -- there's a Thomas Friedman lecture this day, and I weasled my way into going through connections at the consulate. He's a New York Times editorial writer and author of the book "The World is Flat."

Sunday, November 12 -- SY and I travel to Tokyo.

Monday, November 13 to Wednesday, November 15 -- Final presentations in Tokyo.

Tuesday, November 14 -- I do the telephonic Korean language assessment. Passing will increase the likelihood of being hired by the State Department by January.

Thursday, November 16 -- Graduation ceremony

Friday, November 17 -- SY goes to Korea to visit family for two weeks

Saturday, November 19 -- I return to Hawaii.

Sunday, December 3 -- SY arrives in Hawaii.

From this point, I'm not really sure what will happen next. A lot depends on passing either the Korean language test in November or my next attempt at the Chinese test in December.

真不好意思

My boss sent me to Jiangdu to represent the Consulate at a publicity festival. While I was there I gave a speech which the hosts had ... uh ... thoughtfully written up and handed me the day I arrived. I made some edits, and worked with the translator on when I would pause for translation.

Though the contents of the speech were sufficiently bland, for me the day was most notable for a mistake I'd made just before I was supposed to give my speech -- I walked to the wrong end of the stage. When I got to the end, and saw there was no podium, I had to walk all the way to the opposite end while the 900 people in the audience watched and waited.

It was a very embarrassing situation, and I said as much. "真不好意思," I began, and then continued as if nothing special had happened.

The event was featured in the local news, though thankfully any mention of my mistake was left out.

VIPs galore

The consulate here gets a lot of visitors. As the "New York" of China, it's a principal center of commerce, finance, and politics unlike anywhere else. And for that reason, it seems like anyone coming from Washington to China stops in Shanghai.

On top of that, whenever a state or city wants to send a trade mission, they inevitably come here. It makes for a lot of high-powered traffic.

Recently, we've had the Treasury Secretary, the head of NASA, a Hawaii trade mission, and the Commmerce Department's Under-Secretary for Technology come through (that last one had several of my officemates worked up). Soon there will be a Utah trade mission, the Commerce Secretary, and possibly the mayor of a large city.

It's nice to be in a place that gets such attention. I just wish I had access to those people. Oh well....

Internship update

I like my internship. Allow me to explain what I've figured out so far in a Q&A format.

How does the consulate general in Shanghai work?
The U.S. Consulate General is divided up into a lot of parts, only one of which is the FCS.

There are people that push U.S. agricultural exports (like wine - those guys are cool), people take care of U.S. residents (including those that reside in Chinese jails), people who do nothing but interview visa applicants ALL day, people who monitor the political and economic situation here, and people who provide security for these people.

There is no single building where all of this takes place. The FCS office and the public affairs' office are co-located with the Portman Hotel in one building, though we're on different floors. The consular section, where all the visa stuff happens, is in a different building three blocks away.

The main consulate grounds are a car ride away and behind much more serious security. It makes sense -- I'm sure public affairs is much more problematic when you're behind layers of security, and FCS might have a harder time attracting event attendees with a line of visa applicants out the door.

What does your office do?
The Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) promotes U.S. exports to foreign countries. We don't help companies that want to offshore. We don't help U.S. companies import. We push exports because it helps narrow the trade deficit and because all the other industrialized countries are doing it.

Though we can do many things, principally we do Gold Key Services (GKS) and Single Company Promotions (SCP). GKS is for companies who want to sell to the Shanghai market. The team that handles their particular industry will try to find the best Chinese companies interested in importing their product, and set up a full day of meetings (typically four or five).

If there's a good number of Chinese companies who are interested, we might recommend the client go with an SCP rather than spend a week in individual meetings. Maybe 50 people from 25 companies will come in and watch the client's half-day presentation. If they want, we can provide use our conference room and we can arrange catering (all for a fee, of course), and then the companies can follow up as they want after that.

How is FCS organized and what do people do?
The FCS section of the consulate is divided up into five teams, each with about four or five people on it. Each team consists of several locally hired people (FSNs) who do the market research that goes into determining how feasible a U.S. company's entry to China is, and is headed by an expatriate commercial officer.

The team I'm on is an exception -- it's just me and my boss, a U.S. citizen who's originally from Shanghai. While the other teams have their responsibilities divided among the various industry groups within Shanghai, we handle all the industries in the second-tier cities outside Shanghai (specifically Nanjing, Ningbo, and Hangzhou). To make stuff happen, cooperate with a Chinese entity called the CCPIT.

The CCPIT is sort of like a chamber of commerce that promotes international trade, and within that mandate they do the dirty work that the FSNs would do in other teams. If this seems unclear, don't worry -- I've been here a month and a half and I still don't fully grasp it.

What do you do?
Not much.

My team is in the middle of two SCPs right now -- one construction materials company and another that does cosmetics. With the economy in Shanghai (and throughout China) being what it is, it's easy to see why these two companies received such a good response.

Apart from that, I mostly draft and proofread emails for my boss, and attend functions that others with greater seniority don't want to.

There is something I volunteered for that I look forward to. The Management Section is doing a cost-of-living survey this next month, and was looking for someone to help compite the data. Since that's just my cup of tea, I jumped on that. Hopefully, there will be a lot of Excel involved.

Single Company Promotion (SCP)

This evening the office hosted a single company promotion at the Shanghai Westin Hotel for a U.S. organization interested in expanding their presence in China.

As I posted earlier, in an SCP we arrange for a conference room for a U.S. company to present their product or service. We send invitations to appropriate potentially interested parties, do the requisite follow-up, and lend the reputation of the U.S. Government (this is particularly important in China, where guanxi rules).

The company pays for these services (including any catering), but the Commercial Service does the reservations -- the kind of work that would be really difficult for anyone unfamiliar with Shanghai.

The Westin was a really cool hotel, too. I took a couple of pictures, but these don't do justice to either the interior or overall beauty of the architecture.

Government appreciation

Today was the consulate's annual Government Appreciation Dinner. We hosted a number of Chinese government officials as a gesture of gratitude for the friendly relations we enjoy with our partners (remember, this is the Commerce Department).

I sat with my boss and ten of the top managers for the organizations we work with on the American Trading Center initiative. Unfortunately, only two of the guests at our table spoke English comfortably, leaving me out of most conversations. Another spoke Korean well, but even in that language he was far better than me. Needless to say, I was nervous the whole time.

(You can click on the picture above to expand it and see my name card.)

Office View

By some luck in office landscaping, my boss gets a great view -- better than some of the commercial officers. I took some pictures today.

Throne Phone

Yesterday I went on my first business trip -- I accompanied a client's representatives up to Nanjing for a Gold Key Service. I didn't have any time for sightseeing, but I did manage to get one picture of the city from the hotel room.

I also saw this, which I thought was amusing: a phone in the bathroom.

If only Elvis had had one.

Security badge and Week 2

This afternoon I went back to the consulate for my security badge, and had no problems. I even got a chance to stop by the HR office and pick up a more detailed description of a Commercial Assistant job that has opened up, which I'll pass on to a guy I know who's looking.

It would be a great job for me, too, except that it only pays about $12,000 a year -- fine in China, but not so good for paying off student loans. I'll stick to the U.S.

Tomorrow's the big Labor Day BBQ at the consulate, which I'm excited about. I'll be hob-nobbing over hot dogs with those whose jobs I've envied for the past seven years.

As far as this week is concerned, it was pretty interesting. There was a meeting on Tuesday which I think will be weekly -- it's nice because I get to hear what's going on in the differenct sections of the consulate as well as what the other teams are doing within this office.

On Wednesday I sat in on a courtesy call by some government employees from a city in Anhui province. I brought my notepad and pen to take notes, but because the entire meeting was in Chinese (two Chinese officials, my native Chinese boss, and me), I didn't understand a thing and was really frustrated.

The meeting ended with no better understanding. I have a page filled with notes, but the only thing I wrote down were questions like, "Who are they? Why are they here? What am I supposed to be scribbling?" I had to get all the details afterward.

Thursday and Friday were dominated by a search for accurate GDP-per-capita (国内生产总值人均) figures on nine of the largest cities in China. Surprisingly, this was hard to get, as there is no central source for this information on the Internet.

We had to check the Chinese versions of the city webpages for this information, but even that was not completely reliable -- along the coastal cities there's an officially registered population and an unofficial migrant one of people from the countryside working outside their "hukou." (This, by the way, creates a societal stress that results in situations like this.)

So there's no way of knowing whether the city is using the official or actual population. The actual population would be more accurate, but of course there's no authoritative figure. The city government has an interest in using the lower, official number, but that sacrifices accuracy for the sake of precision.

So we used the best numbers we could find, but like many other figures coming out of China by government authorities, they really don't mean anything.

Going to Disneyland

That's what it was like today as I got to go to the main consulate building for the first time. Oh boy!

The FCS (Foreign Commercial Service) division has two drivers for official use, available on a first-come, first-serve basis. One of them took my boss and I over to the main building, where after a security check we were let on post.

There's only one word that can describe the consulate grounds: palacial. After driving past a big lawn, our driver dropped us off in front of the COB building (no one knows what that stands for), and we walked up the stairs.

We passed through the marine guard and walked into the main reception room. A big blue carpet with the Great Seal of the United States was the first thing you notice, followed by pictures of all the ambassadors on the left and the chief executive on the right.

And then there was a problem. We were announced to the RSO (regional security officer), who responded with a slow "oooh." He then informed us that the person who normally works the security badge machine was out. Although she had emailed us only yesterday, that had been from home, and she was not yet recovered from an illness. And having only been at post for a month, the RSO didn't know how to work it the machine.

He asked us to come back tomorrow when she might be in. Frustrating, but that's State, I was told later.

It was also a bit humiliating to have to explain to him all the benefits that I'm denied because I'm under the Commerce Department rather than the State Department. I don't get housed with consulate staff (in fact, no one in FCS is provided housing), I don't get a diplomatic visa (and not even cultural exchange, just tourist), and I don't get health insurance (covered only by my school's program). All of this was news to him, especially the part about the visa issue.

So the good news is: I might get to come back to Disneyland again tomorrow, but since my first day of fun was ruined, I'm not really looking forward to it as much.

First Week in Review

This week has been ... uh ... difficult.

Not only have my feet been in agony because of the shoe thing, but I've had stomach problems, too. Between that and the way the horrid humidity makes me sweat every time I'm outside for more than five minutes, I've been losing a lot of water, and so now I've been getting headaches from dehydration. Ugh.

I've decided this weekend I'm going to get an even newer pair of shoes -- something that can match somewhat-dressy office clothes as well as a pair of jeans. And they will be less than 200块 ($25). That's my mission this weekend.

In terms of work, I've been doing a lot of reading, proofreading, formatting, and drafting of documents and email of a "CYA" nature. For most of the week, though, my boss and the office's intern manager were out of town, so my job has been to get acquainted with service. With my ample free time I've been going through the network drives looking for interesting reports and what kinds of companies have a chance at exporting to China.

On Thursday, my boss said it would be OK for the other person in our team and I to split taking time off until she comes back on Tuesday. They took Friday, so I have Monday off (which I really need).

So it's been hard, but I've started off well, and I earned my first vacation day. Can't beat that, I guess.

Killer first day

Oh my gosh, what a brutal day.

I got a new pair of shoes just for work, and I wore them for the first time today. This was a bad idea, to say the least.

Within just the half hour commute from home to work -- 10 minutes to the subway station, 10 minutes on the subway, and the 10 minute walk to work -- my shoes had rubbed through two layers of skin and opened large sores on the inner quarter of my heel.

Having arrived to work before my new boss, and knowing there was no way I could tolerate the rest of the day like this, and I embarked on a bit of shoe surgery. I figured that there was no way I could return the shoes as they were (blood had stained the interior of my right shoe), so I took a pair of scissors and make vertical slices along the backs of my shoes. SY was saddened to see the new shows she bought for me mutilated, but that was the best thing I could think of at the time.

When my boss came in, I got the walk-through, met the other four interns (three of whom were from summer and will leave in a week), and got familiar with the organizational chart.

After that everyone met with a visiting Deputy Assistant Secretary. He listened to short statements about what everyone did, including the interns, and I wondered what I was supposed to say. When it came my turn, I just said I was a graduate student at the University of Hawaii and added "I'm sorry; this is my first day so I really don't know what I'll be doing." That got a few laughs.

In the afternoon, I did some searching on the Internet for various things -- a resume by a Nanjing official, any large U.S. companies' headquarters there -- and did some translating work with the help of AltaVista's Babelfish.

Quitting time came at 5:30, and what a relief it was to get home, take off my shoes, and relax!

Visited the office

This morning I called the office and left a message for the person who sent me the internship acceptace letter. I wanted to know what time to come in and what to wear -- coming in the first day without a clue seemed like a bad idea.

In the afternoon, not having received a call back, I decided to stop by uninvited and see what was up. Wearing my best shirt and shorts, I took the subway to JingAn Temple Station (静安寺) and meandered over the Shanghai Center / Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

The place is amazing -- a veritable little slice of the West. There's a Tony Roma's, a California Pizza Kitchen, an Italian restaurant, and an imported-food supermarket, all fabulously Western-priced. (Still, for Honeycomb, I'm almost willing to pay the $7 a box.)

I brought my invitation letter and passport to show to the security guard, and one of the very busy commercial specialists met with me.

They'd been expecting that I would show up a week later than I had been scheduled, since next week the only people who had time to show me around, but said I could come in Monday nonetheless. The dress code? Shirt, tie, and slacks. The time? 8:30.

One of the things I was disappointed by was that the Commercial Service (along with the Public Diplomacy section) is not in the same place as the rest of the consulate. Because of security restrictions, it's a whole lot easier for these two groups to meet with people if it's done off-site. Oh well.

Only one more weekend of idleness left. *sigh*

Moving day, accumulating owed favors

We moved in today. It didn't take too long, but the cleaning process has only just begun.

SY wants to clean everything; I want to rearrange everything. We did a little of both as things went along, but as soon as we got the sofa into the living room and set up a dining room table, I lost my enthusiasm.

Given that maids are only about 12 yuan an hour (about $1.50), so we decided that we weren't going to bother with the floor -- we're going to join the rest of America and outsource this task.

In asking around for how to find one, our friend Ryan (the minister of our church here) said he'd ask our building manager for some agencies nearby and let us know. He did one better -- he even called a pair of agencies and arranged for some to stop by. (We promptly added him to the list of people we owe big time.)

So we'll see how that goes -- both SY and I would much rather pay to have our house cleaned than do it ourselves, especially in this case where we didn't even make the mess.

In reflecting on Monday and Tuesday, SY and I thought Seven did a real service for us, and we decided that tomorrow when she and the agent stop by to supervise the installation of the refrigerator and new air conditioner, we're going to give her the bottle of pineapple wine we brought with us from Hawaii. SY even said that if we had brought a second one, thinking there'd be another occasion to show lots of gratitiude, she'd have given that one to Seven as well.

We're really starting to owe a lot of favors.

Another hot day

Oh boy, I definitely didn't look forward to today -- more walking around in sticky, nasty 100° weather. Fortunately, it ended well with us getting an apartment.

We decided today that we weren't going to look at any place that didn't have an elevator. We weren't going to look at any five- or six- story walkups, no matter how nice you say they are. High-rises only.

We debated between a small place that didn't have any kind of living or dining room whatsoever (just a bedroom and a corrider that was served as hallway, kitchen, and laundry room) for 3400RMB and a larger place with actual rooms place (and an immaculate bathroom!), but also had wood floors that had never been cleaned in over five years.

We went with the latter. It's really close to the Zhongshan Gongyuan subway transfer point for lines 2, 3, and 4; my commute is only 30 minutes; it has a Carrefour close by; and there's a KFC almost across the street. Aside from the nasty floor and lack of microwave, it fits what we need. The landlady, a professor of Japanese at nearby China Normal University, even said she'd buy a new refigerator and new air conditioner for our bedroom. Score!

So we pulled out as much money as we could from the closest bank, promised we'd deliver the remaining money for the deposit within the week, and returned to the hotel both triumphant and anxious.

Who's gonna be the one to clean everything? This issue has yet to be decided.

Apartment Trek

Today SY and I met with Seven (from the Triworks company) and went apartment hunting. What a horrible experience -- you would not believe how many scary-looking toilets there are in Shanghai.

And then there was the humidity. We looked at places here and there for hours on end in 100°(dewpoint) weather. And even though the places we looked at had air conditioners, they didn't turn them on just to show the place, leaving us to swelter in apartments made even stuffier by lack of ventilation. The only relief was the A/C in the taxis we rode going from place to place.

We're at a real disadvantage, as most landlords aren't interested in tenants for only three months. In China, both renters and landlords pay a 35%-of-the-monthly-rent fee to the agent that connects them, and landlords don't want to pay that kind of money. They'd rather wait for the next guy who'll rent for a year.

But Seven said this can be remedied by us paying the portion in addition to ours (70% of the monthly rent). We're cool with that, though with the front-loaded lease and deposit that's 4.7 months worth of money we have to cough up within a couple of days, and we're not sure if we can withdraw that much.

Some landlords we checked out just didn't make any sense. One lady had a filthy looking apartment that they hadn't cleaned up at all since the last tenent left three months ago. There was little stuff like plastic wrapper scraps laying on the floor, the chairs weren't arranged around the table, and coins laying on the counter (I'd have at least picked those up). We offered her 3000 RMB ($375) a month, but she insisted on having 3300 ($412) and wouldn't budge.

Why didn't she clean up and make the place look nice? Didn't she know she could probably charge higher rent that way? And why wouldn't she come down the 10 percent? Was it better to risk having an empty apartment for a fourth month and sacrifice 3000 in the hope of getting that extra 600 in the following two months? Weird.

Not satisfied that we found a place worth taking, we decided to check out another part of town tomorrow. Rather than look in the areas north and south of my workplace, where I've have to walk to take a bus, we decided to look at some places along the #2 subway line near Zhongshan Gongyuan (中山公园). Though I definitely don't look forward to another day's trek in this weather, I can't see any alternative available, unless it's to extend our hotel room stay another 91 days.

And that ain't happenin'.

Resting

SY and I arrived in Shanghai yesterday, and are staying in a great little hotel. It reminds me of places like Best Western or Red Roof Inn, though at 300 RMB ($37) it's not nearly as cheap on a PPP basis (purchasing power parity).

Today we're just resting, trying to relax, and exploring the area known as Xujiahui (徐家汇, more on that here). We went to McDonald's in the evening, but that didn't turn out to be such a grand experience because of the more localized nature of the chicken sandwich -- it's a lit greasier and more closely resembles actual chicken meat. Finding myself surprisingly more American than I realized, I discovered I prefer the thoroughly processed stuff.

Western menus are harder to deal with in China than in Korea. If you can read Hangeul (which once you get the hang of is a bit like reading Spanish) you can handle yourself in Korea. You can even try saying stuff like "ice cream" in English, since that's an import word.

You can't do that in China. If you don't know the character, you can't read the menu. They get around this my pulling out a menu from behind the counter that you can point to, but I don't like that -- I'd like to be able to improve my skills by learning the characters. SY's more humble than me in this respect -- she has no problem with the much simpler and much more effective "Zhe ge, yi ge. Zhe ge, yi ge (This. One. This. One.)"

This brings up another issue. With that tactic she gets stares from people who don't understand why this Chinese-looking lady can't speak or understand Chinese. Though she knows how to explain that she's Korean, doing this with everyone she meets is going to get a little tedious.

With the free internet access in the hotel, we were able to download and use Skype for the first time, which was exciting. We called our families and chatted for a bit, and let them know we're doing OK.

Tomorrow, we meet our guide from Triworks (her name is Seven) at the wee early morning hour of 7:30 to talk to landlords about renting an apartment. With Shanghai as humid as it is, it doesn't seem like a lot of fun.