Originally posted August 14, 2012
I have thought about getting business cards made for a long time. About two weeks ago, I realized I was ready to buy business cards. An American friend of mine recommended a place in the city center, about a 20 minute walk from where I live. He took me there to check it out and to pick up a batch of his cards. He told me not to use the girl to design my cards because it was too expensive at this particular store. However, while he was talking to the manager, I ended up sitting down and starting to give my ideas to the design girl. She helped me with my design and told me to come back in a couple of days to confirm she had produced something I wanted and liked. That was on a Friday.
I came back Monday with my assistant and friend so she could translate for me. My American friend was also with me and we decided on the design and the order. That took about 90 minutes. I could see that I had taken longer with the designer than most people, but they were ok with that. However, when it came time to chose the paper for the cards, this is when things got quite interesting. The manager had a swatch of about 125 types of paper. I definitely didn't want the cheap, normal, thin, glossy, one sided card. I prefer a good quality card. So, as we looked through these swatches, I chose about 12 different types and asked about the prices. What I found was that this shop didn't know the price of any of the types of paper for business cards. In fact, they didn't even know if they could get each of the different types of paper. So, with each choice I asked, a girl had to make a specific phone call. I wish you could see the faces of the manager, the girl who had to make the phone calls, and the girl who was with me.
They had obviously never had to go through this process before. In America, this is a normal process. All of these prices are already prepared, and the shop assistant can answer all of these questions on the spot in order to facilitate a faster transaction. The point I am trying to make is that actually asking questions and finding out all possible choices before deciding on which one is best for the customer is completely outside their reality. This is a busy shop, and yet, they had never experienced this type of customer before. I could see the physical and mental exhaustion on the manager as she continued to help me make my choices.
This thinking, and asking questions, and trying to see new points of view, and trying to understand all of your choices - this type of thinking is outside the reality of many people here. That is one of the reasons I love my school. Because my English school is more expensive than most, we do not get a lot of simple people in our school. I taught at an extremely cheap school 3 years ago, and the clientele in this school was completely different than the clientele I deal with now. I prefer being around people who can actually think and who can create an independent thought.
This is important for you to understand that as you try to find your special someone, that Ukrainian girl or Russian girl of your dream, you need to pay attention and give these types of things some thought. I hope this information helps you.
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