To most people, Oxford an academic place full of the smell of books. But if you are living for several years, you can see although it’s still a quite academic place, to some extent it has changed to more commercial one. Every summer there are lots of students come from different parts of the worlds to here to take summer course (mostly language), and streets are full of tourists. If you walk in city center at lunch on a weekday, you will find English is only one of the languages that around your ears, more are other European languages or Indian, Chinese or Japanese.

Working in a fast food restaurant in oxford city center is a great chance to see a minimized world. Actually there is time when the whole dining area is full of people but only a few are British. It’s fascinating to see how people from different countries behave and eat in a fast food restaurant.

British:
I always heard that English society has different classes, and this become very obvious in a fast food restaurant. You can tell from their dresses, the way they talk, and whether they put trays after meals or not. Sometimes you will go absolutely mental when some kids or teenagers pour drink on the floors or have some ketchup flights. It takes a long time to clean afterwards. Once some boys were locked and asked to clean up their mess, otherwise manager will call the police. I wish I was there to see how much they were embarrassed.

Of course, there are also polite people around. One noticeable difference of British customers is that they always say “please” after each order.

“What meal would you like?”
“Double Whopper, please!”
“Drinks?”
“Coke, please!”
“Eat in or take away?”
“Eat in, please”

Spanish and Italian
I don’t why Spanish and Italian customers are so similar. They usually come in a group of three or four, mostly students. Knowing that they are here to study English, I sometimes have to guess their orders. Once a boy came in and order a “Burger King”, I almost asked manager to give him our franchise contract. :)

They talk a lot when having meals, and noticeably loud. I have been to Spain so I know that it’s their culture that people talk relatively loud, but sometimes they become a spotlight here, because English people tend to eat quietly except those boys with tattoos and caps. However, they talk and joke happily and laugh a lot.

When they finish, trays are normally remained on the table. I guess they don’t have a custom of cleaning trays by themselves in their countries, so it’s understandable.

Chinese:
Students are the majority, sometimes students with their parents. I was often asked in Chinese when they took orders.

There is an interesting similarity among all Chinese customers – chicken wing is their favourite menu. Other staffs there asked me why Chinese people like chicken wings so much. To be honest, I don’t know, but I like chicken wings too. Guess just the cultural thing.

Chinese customers also leave trays on the tables after meals. Once a Chinese boy asked me do English people clean their trays by themselves, I answered yes, and he cleaned it carefully. Good boy! (I will explain why it matters so much about whether customers clean their trays or not later)

Japanese:
It’s rarely to see any single Japanese customer, they always come in a group. That makes a lot senses! I sometimes talked to them in Japanese and they were very surprised. About the trays thing, take a look at a photo I took in a McDonald in Japan, I don’t need to explain anymore.

Muslim:
It’s necessary to be careful when taking orders with Muslims. Any burgers with bacon are not suitable, bean burger or vegetable burger is their favourites, just like chicken wings to Chinese customers. So sometimes it takes more time to take order from them. However, it’s cultural thing, I totally understand.

# The tray issue
Clean trays after eating or not makes a big difference to staffs working in dining area. When I am in charge of dining, I know it’s my duty to keep the room clean. But imagine when a table of 10 people leave without cleaning their trays with them, it’s a lot work to do afterwards. Beside, it’s England here, people do clean their trays and they are expected to do so. Although it’s understandable for those from countries like Spain, Italy or China not to clean their trays, but I am still very appreciated if they can do so. When in England, do as the English do.

I am not sure whether it’s appreciate to write this post, but please don’t take it racially, it’s just cultural difference in a small world (or a small restaurant), as the way I see it.

I had a conversation with a guy at work today. He told me he couldn’t understand why the top manager Mr. A needs to mop the floor by himself, he can ask other staffs to do it. Since started working in this restaurant, I have been paying attentions on its management. So I had a little thought on his comment.

There are two managers in the restaurant, say “Mr. A” and “Mr. B”. They are totally two different persons with totally different managing styles. Mr. A is the top manager and Mr. B is below him. However, this doesn’t make many differences on their managing styles. Mr. A is “fix-then-teach” type, whereas Mr. B is more like “blame-until-you-fix-it”. Say if I make a mistake a work, Mr. A will fix the mistake first, and then when everything is ok and not very busy, he tells me what I did wrong. But Mr. B will just standing there, point out the mistake, tell you what to do, but he never help you to fix it.

This makes a huge difference when it’s busy time. Say when it’s lunch time, lots of customers around waiting to order. I make a mistake by putting different sauces into a burger. When Mr. A sees it, he will come and make a new one immediately and keep everything going without saying anything, but I do realise I made a mistake and will learn from it. But if it’s Mr. B, he will just point it out, standing there telling me I made a mistake instead of helping me fix it. One person doing nothing is a huge waste of human resources when it’s busy, but he just doesn’t realise that and cross his hands, watching me fix the problem by myself.

I believe people learn from action more effectively than verbal orders. Like Mr. A mopping the floor this morning, rationally when other staffs see that, they would think “since the managers are doing, I should do it too”, but not “the manager is doing it now, so I don’t need to”. If it’s Mr. B, I guess he just ordered somebody to mop it.

From an employee’s point of view, which one do you like better and more willing to work with? For me, Mr. A.

My plan to travel in Europe is now kind of hanging in the middle of no where because of the visa. I wrote about how difficult to apply for a visa before, but now I am dealing with it.

My original plan is a 20 days trip to Belgium, then Holland, Germany, Italy and finally back to Belgium for returning to England. So I thought Belgian Embassy is the one I should apply to.

According to their requirements, I need to buy a flight ticket, travel insurance, hotel bookings covering the whole trip. But it doesn’t mean they will give me a visa for sure, there is possibility that they don’t, which also mean all the money I spent is merely just for nothing. But anyway, as they require it, I can do nothing but submit all these tickets and documents.

I spent a few days searching hostels on the net and make a exact travel plan. This is the most difficult part, because I have to know where to go exactly , which city, how long I am going to stay, when to leave and how long does it take to go to next destination. If it’s for a few days trip it’s still easy, but for 20 days and to several countries, it’s must more difficult than it sounds like!

After getting all the things they require, I sent them my application. Since I sent my passport with the special delivery, and also one for them to return, it costs me almost £10. Two days later, they got back to me with a message “your longest stay is not in Belgium, please apply in the embassy of the country where is your main destination”. Just for that, 10 pounds!

Germany is the country where I am going to stay longest, so I guess they should be the one I need to deal with. But they don’t accept postal order and I have to apply in person (said on website), which also mean I have to call up that £1/min automatic appointment booking phone line to make an appointment before going there. So I called. The first minutes is full of rubbish like “welcome to *** embassy appointment booking system”, then after several minutes, it finally tell me the earliest appointment they can give me, which is 16th of September. My plan is 6th of September, there is no way I can go on 16th. I also tried Italian and Dutch Embassy, but none of them can give am an appointment before 6th. And just for the calls, I guess it costs me another £10 already.

It’s impossible to apply other embassies any more, so yesterday I changed my hostel bookings to make Belgium as my main destination, then spent another £10 to post my application. I also wrote them a letter explain my situation and almost begging them to give me a visa.

Up to now, include those tickets I bought plus postal fee and phone calls, I guess I have spent at least 90 pounds already. And this can mean for nothing if they don’t give me the visa.

I really don’t like to write all these down because it makes me feel how different I am as a Chinese citizen here. My other friends don’t need to go through all these troubles just to have a summer holiday. When I told me all I have been through, they were shocked. I can understand this is the way it is and I also optimistically think that this will change future. But right now, it really annoys me a lot!

I really Hope that Belgian Embassy will return my passport with an visa on it.