Yesterday, a difficult task came before me at work. The task itself wasn't too difficult but it required me to conduct the conversation entirely in mandarin and that scared the hell out of me. Turning to my boss, I expressed my lack of confidence in completing the work. He looked a little shock, recovered and then said if I need help, I can rope in one of my colleagues.
Heading home, I thought about that little exchange I had with my boss. What happened to that driven guy who showed up at the interview, proclaiming he could do this and that and how hard he would work if given the chance. I honestly felt a little ashamed with myself. Why couldn't I see this as an opportunity to shine instead of running away scared.
Like what Fabregas' agent told him when he first went for trials at Arsenal, "Keep asking for the ball".
This morning, I went back into the office with some renewed vigour and tackled the task head on. It wasn't easy. I stammered a lot and at some stage, the person on the other end of the conversation had to ask me to slow down as he couldn't quite catch what I was saying. In the end, I thought I did alright. I wasn't brilliant, conversant, eloquent etc but I did alright and apart from having to let my boss review the work tomorrow, I reckon the task is pretty much completed.
In fact, I now kinda wish I get more of these opportunities to practice my business mandarin and gain a little more confidence. Hmm.. I might just do a blog post in mandarin one of these days just for the heck of it. Gonna keep asking for the ball!
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