While I can't say much about what I do on a day to day basis (aside from working on our search engine), I really enjoy the fact that my company has around 90 nationalities (or so I'm told) working in our Amsterdam office.
Yesterday I was stuck on a particularly pernicious problem and didn't know why 中华人民共和国 wasn't returning China. In fact, there were several similar issues I was trying to work out, but the simple way of handling this was to walk over to Lynne, who just happens to be Chinese.
She explained that 中国 is how one would actually write "China" (the first version being the long form I stole from the Wikipedia China entry) and pointed out a few other issues for me.
It's great being able to say "I need someone who speaks Chinese" and there she is.
I've listened to French women at lunch complain (in French) to each other that they were tired of speaking English.
I had a Hungarian translator teach me how to say the most foul thing (I'm not telling) because a lady from our Australian office wanted to know.
I've sat down with Serbian, Brazilians, Portuguese, Italians and so many other nationalities tell me that it is like back in their home countries. To me that's practically the holy grail in a work place. The world is pretty damned amazing.
Its like having the live version of Google Translate in your office. :)
ReplyDeleteI once was in a team dinner with 8 coworkers, none from the same country. Dutch, Italian, Polish, Turk, Portuguese, Mexican, United States native, and Russian!
ReplyDeleteIt's those moments in life, however rare they may be, that remind you how great you've got it. Simple as that.
ReplyDeleteIt seems you are at the right place, in this moment of time. So happy and content, with your family and your work. Congratulations :)
ReplyDeleteI do hope I will one day have the same feeling about my life.