In 1993, I started my first job as a production operator in a small transformer factory in Dongguan after graduating from a technical secondary school in which I majored in electronics. I had to read technical specifications in English sent by customers and Hong Kong colleagues. In the beginning, I had great difficulty. Truth be told, in primary school, I learned no English; in my junior high school in the countryside, both the standard of teaching and my efforts to learn English were very poor; and in my technical secondary school, there were no English lessons. My attempts to get a better job were scuppered by my lack of tertiary education. I tried my best to study English, but I had fallen into a vicious circle of lack of confidence and lack of progress. In 1999, I decided to resign from the factory and study English in a foreign language college. Many friends and relatives thought I was crazy, because I already had a decent job and I was no spring chicken at age 25. Campus life was difficult to begin with. Classmates would often laugh at my poor pronunciation. But in the end, I overcame my lack of confidence and got the diploma. In 2002, I entered a management consulting firm as a consultant, a job which required English skills and quality management system (QMS) knowledge. During my eight years at this consulting firm, I translated documents of up to 3,500 pages, and communicated with customers from more than 20 countries, so my English improved significantly. At the end of last year, I ran into two authoritative experts in the realm of TnPM (Total Normalized Productive Maintenance), Professor Li and Associate Professor Xu, who set up an equipment maintenance consulting company in China. They were seeking a consultant who could lecture in English, so were delighted to offer me a job. Many young students hate English because it is so hard to master. However, I firmly believe that we have to pay before we are paid. Mastery of English will change your life in this globalized age. | 