0709070830 Finding a job - not just any job, a particular job.

Yesterday was devoted to getting a job - not just any job, a particular job in building engineering for a local bank. I thought that I would meet with people at church and they would have some work available - the people at church are not really employers as such. They employ entire companies. Our home teachers, for example, one is the vice president for Marriott Hotels and the other is an American diplomat that has had years of army service and speaks fluent Mandarin. He claims that his job is to "process visa applications".

Yesterday, I had to explain what 12 years of going to school means in Australia and how that might be equivalent to 12 years of education in the United States. It seems that it is not that simple. I have no idea what sophomore, freshman and junior high school means. I went to school for 12 years, then I went further - I don't know what a college is in the US - I know that it is tertiary education.

I heard a story about this:
There was an American tourist at a hotel. The hotel staff have a badge with their name and a flag showing the languages that they speak. One manager had a row of flags: The Union Jack, the tricolour, and the Italian flag. I don't remember the name of the Italian flag, but I do remember its colors - green, white, red - it reminds me of pizza with capsicum, onion and tomato. The American tourist asked if he spoke English because he could not see the American flag.

Of all the language problems that I thought I would face in a foreign country, in a strange land filled with unusual customs , I never expected to have trouble speaking "American".