To be blatantly honest, I didn't think I was going to like this job. I took it because I needed it to get residency, and they were one of the only places that offered me a position. I don't speak Chinese, I didn't know that much about Chinese food, and I had never worked in a restaurant before.
From the first day, it was very obvious that this job was going to be way different than the previous ones I've had. All the other employees spoke Chinese except for two, and they clearly preferred to use their native language than English. I felt really uncomfortable butting into their conversations to try to speak to them in English, so I kept to myself most of the time. I worked hard and stayed quiet.
But eventually, I didn't have to figure out a way to speak to them without interrupting. They just started including me in their conversations. We talked about everything. Food, movies, cultural differences between our two countries, even marriage equality. The day I stayed twenty minutes past the end of my shift because I was watching movie trailers with my coworkers online, I knew that I had finally found my place.
I started feeling included. I started to feel like I was accepted, even liked by my coworkers, and it's amazing how much more enjoyable my job became. No, I did not enjoy disinfecting urinals and scraping rice from the depths of booth cushions any more than I already did (which was not at all), but I no longer dreaded going to work.
Work was still something I had to do, but I realized that I might as well have fun while I was there. Lord knows I have a million funny stories of things that customers have said and done, and of the countless observations I've made about Chinese people, but the most important thing I got out of my work experience was a belief in the idea that, at the end of the day, we're all the same.
Sure, I might not like duck as much as my Chinese coworkers, and we might celebrate different holidays and spend our free time talking to friends back home in different languages, but we all appreciate a good laugh. We all enjoy going to the movies and stepping into a world completely different than the one we know. We all appreciate a sunny day and something sweet for dessert. We're all people, we all breath and speak and work and love. We all have goals and dreams for ourselves, and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter that we come from two completely different places.
But eventually, I didn't have to figure out a way to speak to them without interrupting. They just started including me in their conversations. We talked about everything. Food, movies, cultural differences between our two countries, even marriage equality. The day I stayed twenty minutes past the end of my shift because I was watching movie trailers with my coworkers online, I knew that I had finally found my place.
I started feeling included. I started to feel like I was accepted, even liked by my coworkers, and it's amazing how much more enjoyable my job became. No, I did not enjoy disinfecting urinals and scraping rice from the depths of booth cushions any more than I already did (which was not at all), but I no longer dreaded going to work.
Work was still something I had to do, but I realized that I might as well have fun while I was there. Lord knows I have a million funny stories of things that customers have said and done, and of the countless observations I've made about Chinese people, but the most important thing I got out of my work experience was a belief in the idea that, at the end of the day, we're all the same.
Sure, I might not like duck as much as my Chinese coworkers, and we might celebrate different holidays and spend our free time talking to friends back home in different languages, but we all appreciate a good laugh. We all enjoy going to the movies and stepping into a world completely different than the one we know. We all appreciate a sunny day and something sweet for dessert. We're all people, we all breath and speak and work and love. We all have goals and dreams for ourselves, and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter that we come from two completely different places.
