Free Write 6- Fall Break

This fall break I went to San Francisco with my other 7 friends. San Francisco has a special meaning to Chinese that it was the first city for previous Chinese people to come to the USA. And a lot of Chinese labors did great contribution to the construction of the west coast of the USA. A lot of Chinese there speak Cantonese instead of Mandarin. In this case, it is still hard for us to communicate with them, haha!

Most parts of San Francisco are built in mountains, it is hard for us both to walk or drive through the city. Furthermore, since the air show these days, a lot of streets in downtown San Francisco are closed. It took us much more time to get through the heavy traffic. China town is very old, and we just felt coming to old Shanghai or Hong Kong, which was very interesting. We of course visited the Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street, and Stanford University was amazing. I felt I had become smarter and clever after visiting the university, haha!

In conclusion, this journey in San Francisco was very good! So sad that the fall break is coming to an end.

An Interview with a Police Officer in China

The person I chose to interview was a civil servant in Chengdu Administration of Entry and Exit. I had an internship in Chengdu Administration of Entry and Exit this summer, so I tried an online contact with a police officer working there the other day.

The police officer works in Foreign-related department. In this case, her main responsibility is to handle foreign cases and to manage foreigners who live in Chengdu. Becoming a civil servant is thousands of Chinese’s dreams, and she is no exception. Furthermore, working in Chengdu Administration of Entry and Exit can have opportunity to get in touch with foreigners, which is very interesting to her. Her position doesn’t require special major and education, but a general bachelor’s degree. In China, before get interviewed by HR department of public sectors, applicants have to take a civil service examination, which is fiercely competitive with a lot of competitors. Winners with higher scores can be able to enter the government and get a position. The advice she gave was that police officer must be patriotic and self-respecting, especially in front of foreigners. These days, the image of government in Chinese citizens’ brain is becoming more and more friendly, instead of cool and rigid. Hence, civil servants behave more polite and amiable.

The reason why I am interested in this position is that I really really want to become a civil servant to do something for my city, and my country. In addition, my major is very suitable for this position. And I think this position is very challenging because the group of people police officer interacts everyday are not Chinese people, but foreigners. Lastly, working in the government is very stable, and that is exactly the type of life I am looking forward to.  

Leadership

The leadership in my internship is like a relationship-oriented leadership, which means my supervisor acts like a friend in most of times. In 520-Public Management course I take this semester, I have learned that there are generally two categories of leadership- relationship orientation and task orientation.

Task orientation means that the leader puts almost all his/her attention to the goal attainment. This type of leader may set strict deadlines and explicit schedules for the subordinates. On the other hand, relationship orientation means that the leader puts his/her subordinates at first and they hope to improve the performance by motivation.