Vivace in Canada

Our department is moving to a new office soon. We’ve also had several office equipment related training sessions recently. Some of our administration team members are nervous about using those advanced all-in-one printer machines. My name was brought up on our way back from training. My supervisor suggests to them that I can assist if they have any difficulty with those machines. I have been identified as a “Techie” person by my supervisor and colleagues. I do hardware and software troubleshooting in the office all the time, but this is not part of my job. I didn’t receive any education or professional training for doing this. Sometimes I wondered how I became like this too. I think that I learned to because I had no choice and my curiosity drove me.

I remembered it clearly. I was reading a computer flyer at home when I was in grade five. I wanted the computer showed on the flyer so bad, because I believed that I could do so much with it, although I didn’t even know what a computer can do. My fascination for computers came out from nowhere.

The first computer of mine was a laptop. It was a requirement when I was accepted to Kaohsiung Hospitality College. I had to have it for the registration. And Microsoft Windows 95 was a required operating system for my laptop. My mother bought it for me from someone she knew through work. He dropped it off at home for us and gave me a business card. He said that I could call if I had any questions. Laptops were considered luxury items at the time, and it cost my mother two months’ of her salary. The only thing I knew about it was I could play Minesweeper. One day, I accidentally dragged my Minesweeper window out of the screen and couldn’t get it back to normal. I phoned the guy to see if he could help me with it. He was very inpatient with my stupid question, so he told me it was just a game and it didn’t matter. The conversation ended without getting a solution. I knew from that moment that I wouldn’t be able to rely on this person, and I didn’t want to rely on anyone anymore.

I've always considered my English ability to not be good enough to express myself completely. I use simple vocabularies and phrases in communications most of the time, and I'm hoping one day I can use English in writing and speaking more freely.

I enjoy writing essays in Chinese, and the passion extends to English since I use English daily. In order to improve my writing skills, my English articles are posted on this blog. This was the expository essay assignment of the Communications course I took in Spring. I learned a lot about academic writing from this course. Below is an unrevised verson of my writing.

Although one of my duties--supply ordering--has been transferred to Megan, I need to oversee her work or assist her with determining what to order.

One day, as usual, Megan consulted me what else do we need for office before she submitting a Grand and Tory order. “we gonna need facial tissues soon, order some.” I said. “facial tissues?” Megan wondered. I realized immediately that it is not how my Canadian colleagues normally call it. “oh, I mean Kleenex, but Kleenex is a brand. Kleenex tissue is facial tissue” I felt like teaching her the proper term. “I’ve known it as Kleenex my whole life, it is Kleenex!” Megan fought back. “No, no,” I didn’t back down. “Kleenex is a facial tissue brand. Just like Q-tips, it is a brand, but people refer to cotton swab as Q-tips. Not all swabs are Q-tips.”

About a week ago, one of our employee sent an email to Megan and requested to order Scotch tape. “Have we ordered Scotch tapes before?” Megan phoned me and asked. “Well, we normally order Grand and Tory brand invisible tapes. They are just as good as Scotch tapes. 3M products are too expensive.” I explained. And I know Megan must considered that Scotch tape is a specific type of tape, but the invisible tapes we use every day in the office.