Vinko’s Thoughts On…

Refabricating City 2008
Originally uploaded by Vinko T.

Today I went to visit the “Refabricating City 2008” exhibition at the Hollywood Police Station, 10 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong.

It showed off some of the urban development concepts from both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen city urban development.

You can check out some of the photos from my Flickr album.

This afternoon I was on a local bus; First Bus #115 license plate JV7020, going East bound from Central to Kowloon City.

The outside temperature was a cool 18C, but the driver still had the air conditioner basting. The temperature in the cabin must be at least 16C.

We continue to talk about saving the environment by reducing energy consumptions and the CFC (Chlorofluorocarbons) emissions from air conditioners, but the joe-public just don’t seem to care.

In Hong Kong they even made an official recommendation for all public transportations to maintain an in cabin temperature of 23.5C. At first when the government made this recommendation, all the public transport companies were advertising the fact that they were complying with the recommendations. Now after only a few months they have reverted back to their old habits.

It this a problem of education? Its this an issue of selfishness? Or is it a social awareness issue? May be it is all of the above. I do not have a solution but for the sake of our future; on this planet, I hope people will be more aware.

At least for the time being.

I guess my efforts to stop the Hong Kong government’s decision to impose a GST in Hong Kong had not been in vain.

The Hong Kong government announced today that they will, for the time being, put off the discussion of whether to impose a GST in Hong Kong.

G.O.D., a local Hong Kong brand and home & living retail store, always have one of the more imaginative window display in their anchor store in Causeway Bay district in Hong Kong.

This time it is a “red-white-blue” (literal translation) bag, which is a very popular inexpensive bag/container used by traditional Chinese and locals when they need to move a large quantities of stuff from point A to point B.

Some times you can still see these “red-white-blue” bags used as luggage containers, by mainland Chinese and some rural residences of Hong Kong during their trips overseas.

G.O.D. has always sold themselves as the “Hong Kong Brand” with very unique Hong Kong flavour designs. This latest windows display further supports their ability to capture the spirit of Hong Kong in their efforts to deliver this to the world.

Have you walked along the streets of your city and notice from far the approach of tourist to your city?

Why are these tourists stand out like a sore thumb? I am not talking about those who are trying to manipulate a spread out map, around and around, trying to get their orientation. I am not talking about the Japanese tourist who are snapping photos like paparazzi. I am talking about those tourist who are minding their own business and walking along the streets of our cities admiring the sights. For some reason they are very easy to spot.

Am I being too nosy? Or am I just extra observant.

I currently live in Hong Kong, and it is particular easy to spot those mainland Chinese tourist. I think it has to be the way they dress.

I sure hope I do not stand out like them when I am a tourist in a foreign city.

Next time you’re walking down the street, take a look for yourself and see how many tourist you can spot.

What I am referring to is the style of written English in Hong Kong; Hong Kong English aka. “Hongkish”.

I had wrote about this subject back in May of this year. The article stirred up quite a few controversy among people I know and the general public Netizens who read my Blog.

I say “the written English…”, because this and the majority of the previous article are based on signs displayed in public.

Today I saw the following sign on a Star Ferry:

“Do not smoke and put your feet on the bench”

So is Star Ferry Company saying that people who don’t put their feet on the benches can smoke on the boat?

What I think Star Ferry Company wanted to say is:

“Please do not smoke or put your feet on the benches”

Another trait I noticed about Hongkish, is that it is usually the impolite version of the phrase. This is very puzzling to me, especially when the (Traditional) Chinese version is the polite form of the phrase rather than a command like the English version (Hongkish version).

Another sign I also saw within the Star Ferry was:

Please mind a moving gangplank when disembarking and embarking”

I think they meant to say:

Please mind the moving gangplank when disembarking.

When the sign is displayed well inside the boat there is no reason to mention embarking.

I believe there should be an organization formed by the government or the Tourist Association of Hong Kong to correct all these public displayed signs, before they embarrass Hong Kong any further.

Many chains in the Service industry will have a particular customer service style for them to differentiate themselves among its competitors.

Maintaining this customer service style [level] is one of the most difficult thing to accomplish. Much of the success in delivering the customer service level a particular chain desire have to do with the nature of the staff and their training.

Large franchises like: McDonald’s and Starbucks have international standards of conduct, which their disseminate to their satellite locations and franchisees. Although, in the case of McDonald’s the execution of the customer service level is up to the management teams of the particular franchise. The latter is one of the deficiencies of McDonald’s (McD’s) compared to Starbucks.

At least in Hong Kong, McD’s enthusiasm that existed in many of its young, teenage staff are lost when the Fall school season began. These enthusiastic staff are then replaced by the middle age laddies, who among other things do not speak English. The lack of English skill is a problem especially when many of the McD’s are visited by local tourist while they need an escape from the local culinary delights.

Most importantly, these middle age staff behave as if they are working at a local Chinese fast food restaurant or a “Cha Tsan Tang” (aka. local eatery). The traits of these local restaurants are lack of smiles when serving, impoliteness and treating customers in a lower stature than themselves.

I strongly believe that to deliver a good customer service experience, one [the server] must conduct oneself just a level or more below the customer one is serving. When you examine the world’s top customer service (CS) companies you will find numerous examples of this trait throughout their CS policies and other operational procedures.