Slices Of Life

[Dragonsaver]

Congradulations Boss

I am sure you will have them climbing the cliff to beg you, the guru of hotel knowledge for more and more.

I don't envision a swan dive for you.

[DollyODear]

Glorious, dude. Here's to having the guts to make your dreams come true.

[Escaped Lunatic]

>Am I forging myself a bright future here, or am I taking a 350-foot screaming homo cliff dive into the Lagoon of Stupid Judgment?

There's an old African proverb that comes to mind here. "Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet." Then again, sometimes one finally reaches a point where the best options is to hurl oneself off the precipice head first and worry about the depth at the landing point later. I usually find it comforting to yell something like "Banzaii" as I go over the edge. Perhaps there's a Chinese equivalent.

Best of luck! Please remember to set up the drinks for the victory celebration or funeral before leaping. :-)


In honor of your bold leap into the unknown, you get 2 quotes:

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."
- Albert Einstein

"Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done."
- Robert A. Heinlein

[Newbs]

Mate, all the very best with the new venture.

My 2 jiaos worth. Some years ago I had the chance to take my career down a certain path, but did not take up the chance. For a few months afterwards I kept saying to myself, "Newbs that was the biggest mistake you ever made." But eventually I turned it round, and started saying, "Thinking that was the biggest mistake you ever made is probably the biggest mistake you ever made." Ni ting dong le ma? Raoul, you've made your decision, now go out there and kick some goals.

(This is just about Newb's most serious post ever, except perhaps when he's going on about the politicians in Hoganland.)

And what EL said about setting out the drinks.

[teleplayer]

Here's to your success, Laoban!!

[woza17]

Good luck Mr R. Are you using the training manual that you created, exclusively for your companies or will you publish and sell them? The reason why I ask, is that I will be working at the Sherton hotel after the Summer camp. This is an imortant contract and because the FT up and left suddenly we really have to make a good impression.

Any pointers or textbooks you could recomend?

[con's fly is open]

I'll confirm it: Raoul has been busting his hump to write these books. The work is all at the front end- fine tuning and customizing the texts will be child's play compared to cranking them out in the first place.

Now that the really nice prominent local hotel signed on, I'm hoping that the other hotels will come a-running, leaving some sloppy seconds for Yours Truly.

[woza17]

Con the boss interviewed a nice young American man. He is giving the job to him or at least the demo WTF. Anyway he is using New interchange WTF.
Serious talk to the boss.
Just a thought but maybe Mr R we can do business.

[Raoul Duke]

Woza, I'm using New Interchange for those who need basic English! I figure that Hotel English isn't much use if you can't make basic conversation. My course is meant to hit at at least the low-intermediate level.

I gotta run for now but we'll discuss this later tonight!

Also, please make sure your e-mail address in the Saloon is up to date!

[gengrant]

congrats, barkeep! make sure you keeps us updated on howse it goes.

and I envision less of a cliff dive and more of a belly-flop...

but God knows you'll win that competition!

[Raoul Duke]

Thnks all!
The first day went OK. I'd write more but ended up celebrating at Harry's Bar (The Official Real-Time Hangout of Raoul's China Expat Saloon^TM) with Loops and getting pissed drunk.

I did learn one important fact: If British people get drunk enough, they will start buying rounds like crazy.

One to file away for future reference.

[teleplayer]

admin said:

Woza, I'm using New Interchange for those who need basic English! I figure that Hotel English isn't much use if you can't make basic conversation. My course is meant to hit at at least the low-intermediate level.

I gotta run for now but we'll discuss this later tonight!

Also, please make sure your e-mail address in the Saloon is up to date!

Laoban,
Not only to say more congrats, want to help keep forum post general post count up and second Woza's interest.

Of course, I first need to get there, but with 12 years F-T behind a bar, not to mention this student services which is another form of service, my preference for working with working professionals, I'd be interested in helping sell copies of your book because I used it. So, I hope your test marketing goes well.

Of course, I need to get myself there.

Now, I know your courses/texts are oriented for China, but you know that there is a need to get South of the Border workers in U.S. up to speed and you might want to note that most of the very manual jobs once filled by Mexicans and other Hispanics in U.S. seem to be going to Asian immigrants. The Mexicans are driving the fork lifts and trucks, being formen/women for construction, building maintenance, etc. They don't do the real manual stuff anymore, so you might even have a market here for others who want the language skills to get out of the bottom tier quicker.

[Lotus Eater]

Raoul - you've worked this circuit before - even if it hasn't been for yourself. So you know the pitfalls and the profitable areas. This isn't the major leap off the cliff - you can always go back and find another gig working for someone else if all else falls over.

You can do it - you have the experience and the creativity. WAY TO GO!!

[Raoul Duke]

Thanks again, all. I'm pretty stoked.

Lotus, I do know this territory pretty well and that's what scares me. Corporate training is a pretty rich field but it's very erratic. After one round is finished, training managers often tend to pour a fresh cup of tea, insert a finger up their nose to the elbow, and lapse into a coma for 4-6 months before maybe ordering another one. You have to hustle to constantly keep new projects in the pipeline.

Woza and TP, my plan for now has been to finish the book series and become the Hotel King of Suzhou. (Suzhou is currently experiencing a massive explosion of new luxury hotel projects.) If successful, then why not expand to other areas across China? And if it's good in China, then it would not be too hard to adapt the material use in other hotels from Oaxaca to Ouagadougou. And yes, I might even dream of ultimately publishing the books for sale in a Foreign Languages Bookstore near you.

Woza, I would be thrilled and honored to have you teach my course in your hotel there, if you are OK with using a work in development. So far I'm the only person to ever actually teach these lessons...and I've only taught one class so far. However, so far the hotels seem very happy with my content. This conversation should probably go to e-mail; please send me an e-mail and I'll send you some outlines and samples.

One thing I will say: the standard Hotel English books in the bookstores here all stink on ice...just astoundingly bad. The Hotel books produced by my last company were better than anything else on the market...and even they were pretty embarrassing to have to teach sometimes. What I'm writing may not be all that great, but I'm pretty sure that it's a lot better than the alternatives.

[Lotus Eater]

Want to franchise it to Xi'an as well?? You could soon become the new major training company in China - and be EMPLOYING recruiters to help you find good teachers.

[Raoul Duke]

Xian, si.
Steenking rotten recruiters, no.

[Mr Nobody]

Let me know how it goes. Nanning is going to experience a tourist boom, so they tell me, and guilin etc already has. How does it work?

[cheekygal]

whats wrong with New Interchange? It seems better than Headaway...

[woza17]

Mr R.
You have my current e-mail address.
But I am worried about what you will get out of it.
How will this work for you? We have a number of international hotels here too.

[con's fly is open]

Good point, Baba Lu. You'll have to start hatching a scheme to franchise this. I have a suspicion that success will come like an avalanche.

[Raoul Duke]

Well, thanks, but let's hope it's a slow avalanche. Most of the damn thing isn't even written yet. I'm not really ready for mass franchising yet.

Woza, I'll e-mail ya and see what we can do.

Now, class, here are today's phrases. Repeat with a funny foreign accent:
"I'd like to feed his fingertips to the wolverines."
"Hand me that piano."
"Great! MORE bagpipe music!"
"Does that come with leeches?"
"This paddy wagon is much nicer than most, don't you think, dear?"