User talk:TomasBelan

Early Morning in Shanghai
In the UK August bank holiday weekend is almost upon us... and I'm writing this from Shanghai city en-route to our China office.

Last weeks newsletter told you about the sad departure of one of our longest serving employees; Amanda. The last official day I understand was an office full of fully grown people sobbing helplessly. This week we welcome not one but two bright shiny new people to AW; Zoe, full of vitality and fresh ideas is to be our new showroom manager. And Bruno another bright Frenchman.. steps in to re-enforce our export department under the watchful eyes of Philippe.

I'm sure you join me in wishing them good luck and good fun at AW.

Shanghai in August is like being in a Graham Greene novel. Languid, humid a teaming metropolis slowed down by sticky tropical heat and invisible mosquitoes. This normally young city bursting with energy, at this time of year shows a more subdued character. Rise early and visit the one of the many pocket parks that inhabit the spaces between the mega constructions beneath the elevated motorways and you will find the old folk of Shanghai.

Some are doing Tai Chi others appeared to be taking tango lessons. The retired people of Shanghai take keeping fit very seriously they also seem to be having a great time. Later as the heat increased I found the same people drinking green tea beneath the trees playing cards and mahjong.

midday it's touching 40c and too hot to do anything...

More news from China.. next week.

Take care. (TomasBelan (talk) 08:31, 24 August 2010 (UTC))

Toe Tongue Pains in China
Greeting from China.. last week I was in Sock City.. you can read about it here. This week - I'm back at our AW office trying to discover the next big thing. The next task on my list on this trip is to try and learn some Chinese beyond the "hello, thank you & goodbye" level.

Now it fair to say I'm not a gifted linguist. As my friends will gleefully tell you: I'm about as good at prouncing, remembering or recalling foreign words as I am at walking on water. My oldest friend is French, my wife Slovakian, I'm involved in a Spanish business.. you'd think some bloody foreign words would stick in my dense English brain. If I ever learned the word for egg it will surely slip from my brain, as sure as eggs is eggs.. like it was a non-stick pan.

Being British has some advantages.. at least you can adopt an Imperialist air and point out that most of the world (especially those doing business) can speak English.. so why bother to try and learn the lingo?

Actually that's a good point.. no.. NO it's NOT (I have to remind myself) it's arrogant and lazy and more than rude. So it's on my list to learn to learn a language. And since I'm here in China it may as well be Chinese.

I have been applying myself to this task for almost three weeks.. have I made any progress? I can tell you it's a very slow boat to China.I have taken all the advise I can find.. except enrolling in a class. (I'll do that when I don't look so stupid).I've moved out of the hotel and am living with my Man-in-China and his delightful wife, who are immensely patent with me - endlessly repeating words and phrases. I have a note book and write new words down as I find them. Their apartment is plastered in yellow stick it notes - anything that doesn't move has an approximation of the Chinese word for it stuck to it. I have signed up for several Chinese learning websites (they are good).. and my long suffering staff and perfect strangers are being subjected to meaningless mangled mysterious noises. And all the while nodding encouragingly.

Here's what I have learned.. the good news is that the Chinese don't have that many words.. far less than in English and that the grammar is mercifully simple. The bad news is that they use the same word for lots of uses. for example Ba.. means Dad, Pull, Eight or it's like a question mark at the end of a phrase plus all sorts of other things... so how the devil do you know what they are saying? Well they kind of sing the words and the way you sing a syllable changes the meaning. Eg the words for buy and sell are the same..something sounding like mie and my.

To my insensitive English ears the tones or singing are so very similar I can't blinking tell the difference. I always suspected I was tone deaf.. now I know it. So with my cabbage ears and Teflon memory I'm undertaking a monumental task.

The word for head sounds something like; toe and the word for pain or ache something like; tongue.All this is giving me a sever... toe tongue..

If you have any advise on getting my dodgy brain to learn a foriegn language do please let me know :(

Take care.

Lot of Money in Socks
I'm writing this weeks from the small city of Zhuji. I'm here on a field trip visiting factories.. when I asked what Zhuji is famous for I was told three things.Exquisite (ie expensive) fresh water pearls, there is lots of water here and a big lake.Beautiful women.. every school child knows the story (apparently) of The Four Beauties: According to legend, The Four Beauties were the most beautiful women of ancient China. They gained their reputations from the influence they exercised over kings and emperors. Each from a different city and each of them in the story came to a sticky end. Well one of them came from here.And the third thing is much less glamorous but very lucrative.. you have probably never heard of Zhuji but your feet certainly have.. this is world central for: socks. They tell me that almost every one in this town in one way or another is connected to socks. A good proportion of the worlds sweaty feet are clad in socks from Zhuji.

There must be money in socks.. as we approach this city over a lovely mountain pass I noticed numerous luxury villas and even more being built. A billion dollar high-level train link is being built to connect this city quickly to Shanghai. In the bustling town a river is flanked by seaside style promenade flanked by designer shops and expensive restaurants. The roads are full of top end cars, in town is a stupendous 50 floor five star hotel a gleaming Rolls-Royce Phantom parked outside. The place has a real feel of a boom town. This is new China at it's most exuberantly a China that even five years ago didn't exist. For the first time I have a slight sense of vertigo, is it all too high to quick? Will the bubble burst.. this is not silicon valley or an oil money town - this town is built on humble socks?

But I'm not here for the socks, apparently (my man in China tells me) we can find pouches, organza bags and the like at keen prices. This is the town geared up for it. Yesterday I visited a small factory and I was very impressed at the standards. Clean and airy, well organised, industrious and with very happy staff.

So it looks promising..Yes (you're right) I am staying in the luxury hotel rubbing shoulders with buyers from M&S and Next.. but it's a bargain just at £70 a night.

Take Care

India frustrations & Freedom
Soon I must fly to India but I have a problem… my visa for India has expired. Normally I have a one-year business visa but for some inexplicable reason last time I was granted only six months (even though I was charged the annual rate)... Consequently I have to acquire a visa for my British passport to India whilst in China.

The Indian consulate in Shanghai is unsignpost and hidden on the tenth floor of one of many huge trade centre buildings. A dodgy website advised me to be there at 8am and I dutifully filled in the downloadable forms and found the place. At the office a disinterested security guard waved me to a waiting room explaining that the consulate rarely started before 9.30am but it might be 10 or 11am. I sat waiting alone… obviously not much demand for visas here. Eventually a large dark suited Indian gentleman swaggered into the room he barely glanced at me, still standing he picked my neatly arranged paper up and without looking at them or me declared they were incorrect and walked out of the room. I waited… after twenty minutes he came back with a new set of forms for me to fill in. Identical information required, I filled these and waited. What a palaver… now he wanted extra papers, company incorporation papers of my company and the company I was visiting in India. How the hell do I get these things (I asked as humbly as I could muster) with the time difference? He just shrugged and walked off again, just pausing to point to an address where I should go and make a cash deposit and present the extra papers…

So now I will do this tomorrow… it's reasons (or people) like this that explain why China foreign trade is ten times that of India… when in fact India has all the natural advantages. English language, plentiful raw materials (China imports these from India), large available workforce, much more original talent and stunningly clever brains.

When I complain about Indian bureaucracy to my Indian friends they generally laugh and blame the British introducing red tape. In spite of this I still love India… and when I go in a couple of weeks I'm sure I will as always be charmed and delighted by the culture and people. I can also develop further our AW Freedom Fund projects. You can really help us really easily… see below.

I got some updates recently…First from our Kolkatta project:

Dear DavidFreedom English lessons are going quite good. The enthusiasms in the workers have still not died and they are as eager to learn as the first class was. There is a new development as well our teacher wants his English Learning students to get certificates for their endeavours as well .He was in talks with a local institutional arm who has agreed to conduct a small test in and around November-December and provide them the certificates. I am really happy for this as now I can proudly say that even my factory workers have Certified Qualification! Everybody in the world deserves a better future, who are we to stop them! You are in for a treat next time you all are here.

Then from our Agra project..

Hi David,Great News!!The first English Class lessons were held on Sunday 22nd August. The Students of all ages came right now time for the classes, dressed up neatly & with all the excitement to start a new learning experience, which without the initiative of AW would not have been possible. I personally was feeling very happy seeing them study & listening to their teacher very carefully. Luckily enough we have been able to find a very good teacher, who apart from teaching them English is also trying to give some personality development lessons. For the first class itself a big number of students registered themselves & i see a lot more wanting to learn in the future classes. I feel great about getting associated with such kind of project... here are some pictures.

So basically we want to start more little projects like these, I'm just asking if you will support us by stocking a Freedom product currently we have a range of Bags and a range of Incense (see below). Each time you sell a Freedom product you are putting funds in these projects… and really a small amount goes a long way.So…This week is Freedom Week… for one week if you order just one Freedom item we will give you automatic Gold Reward status… Maximising all your discounts regardless of quantity. Can't say fairer than that can we.

More news next time...

Your invitation to participate in a Wikimedia-approved survey in online behavior.
Hello, my name is Michael Tsikerdekis, currently involved as a student in full time academic research at Masaryk University. I am writing to you to kindly invite you to participate in an online survey about interface and online collaboration on Wikipedia. The survey has been reviewed and approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Research Committee.

I am contacting you because you were randomly selected from a list of active editors. The survey should take about 7 to 10 minutes to complete, and it is very straightforward.

'''Wikipedia is an open project by nature. Let’s create new knowledge for everyone!''' :-)

To take part in the survey please follow the link: tsikerdekis.wuwcorp.com/pr/survey/?user=40242950 (HTTPS).

Best Regards, --Michael Tsikerdekis (talk) 12:04, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

PS: The results from the research will become available online for everyone and will be published in an open access journal.

UPDATE: This is the second and final notification for participating in this study. Your help is essential for having concrete results and knowledge that we all can share. I would like to thank you for your time and as always for any questions, comments or ideas do not hesitate to contact me. PS: As a thank you for your efforts and participation in Wikipedia Research you will receive a Research Participation Barnstar after the end of the study. --Michael Tsikerdekis (talk) 19:37, 14 February 2012 (UTC)