Return to Singapore 1995

At early five o'clock in the afternoon, the factory shuttle bus arrived at the parking lot next to the market on time. Li Xiaofan is currently working the midnight shift, also called the second shift, and his working hours are from 5:30 pm to 12 midnight.

The shuttle bus is a big old Mercedes-Benz, like the American school bus in the movie Forrest Gump, which can seat more than thirty people.

At half past five, the shuttle bus arrived at the Ximu Electronics Factory in Luoyang Industrial Zone on time.

Li Xiaofan came to the locker, put on the factory's yellow uniform, put on his hat, and entered the dust-free workshop.

Westwood Electronics Group is a multinational company with a Japanese background. Singapore Westwood Electronics in Luoyang Industrial Zone is a joint venture factory between Japanese capital and a local consortium in Singapore. The Luoyang factory where Li Xiaofan works is mainly responsible for the manufacturing of multi-layer circuit boards (PCBs).

He was assigned to the electrical testing shop for finished circuit boards. Electrical testing is the most important process step after the finished circuit board is manufactured and before it is sent to the customer. It is very technical. There are dozens of the world's most advanced testing machines in the workshop. However, Li Xiaofan did not have the opportunity to operate these machines.

He was assigned to work in the finishing team outside the electrical testing workshop. The entire electrical testing workshop is divided into three groups: finishing, testing and error correction.

The finishing team is the least technical in the entire workshop. The main job of this finishing team is to be responsible for finishing the finished circuit boards before PCB testing, including cleaning and printing laser digital signs and other processes.

The main job of him and his friends every day is to clean circuit boards. The two of them are like fools. One is responsible for placing the board at one end of the cleaning machine, and the other is responsible for receiving it at the other end of the machine. After washing, the boards are transported to the electrical testing workshop and delivered for testing. If a customer specifically needs to print a laser digital logo, they will also need to go through the laser printing process. This is a job with little technical content.

Team leader A Biao said to Uncle Suba in English: "Tonight you and Li Xiaofan are responsible for washing the plates at the No. 1 machine..."

The leader of the finishing team, Abiao, is from Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia. He has been working in the factory for more than five years. His current level is a third-level operator.

And newcomers like Li Xiaofan are level five operators. At Westwood Electronics, there are five levels of operators. Employees who perform well can generally be promoted and receive a salary increase once a year.

Ordinary operators are usually the first level operators. If the leader takes a fancy to you and asks you to further your studies and get an on-the-job training certificate, you can continue to be promoted to the assistant technician AE level...

Tonight, Li Xiaofan's opponent is Uncle Suba, a Singaporean of Indian descent. Uncle Subash's name is very long, Subash is probably his first name, and there is a long surname. I don’t know when, but he was called the catchy Uncle Suba by a group of Malaysian boys.

After arriving in Singapore, Li Xiaofan realized that there were also poor people in Singapore. Uncle Suba falls into this category. When he was a child, his family had many children. He went to middle school for one year and went out to work to help his family make money without even taking the O-level exams.

After team leader Abiao finished arranging the work, Uncle Suba and Li Xiaofan came to the cleaning machine and started working in a tacit understanding. Uncle Suba works very seriously, but his hands and feet are a bit slow.

"Uncle Subash, you can put it faster, then we can save time and have more rest! (Uncle Subash, you can put it faster, then we can save time and have more rest!)" Li Xiaofan said suddenly.

Uncle Suba raised his head and stared at Li Xiaofan in surprise: "Oh, Lee, you can speak English? (Wow, Lee, you can speak English?)"

For more than half a year, Uncle Suba's impression of Li Xiaofan was that he was a taciturn, hard-working young man from mainland China who was very shy and didn't like to talk much, let alone speak English.

Li Xiaofan smiled. After working in foreign companies for nearly twenty years, his working English was nothing to him now.

Li Xiaofan smiled and said in English: "Yes, I have been learning English recently. Is it making good progress?"

"That's great, Li. I feel like you speak English better than the team leader, A Biao! That's great. I won't be lonely anymore. We can have a good chat and have fun together!"

"Haha, I'm happy to, Uncle Suba!"

"Li Xiaofan, what the hell are you talking about!" The two of them were working and chatting happily when suddenly a clear female voice came from behind.

Uncle Suba was so frightened that he quickly shut up and made faces at Li Xiaofan in embarrassment.

Li Xiaofan looked back and saw a girl wearing a cream-white short skirt. She was about 1.65 meters tall and had a slim figure. However, her pretty face had a menacing look that made people shudder.

The person coming was their workshop director Lin Qianxue, the overbearing female boss who changed the tone of the entire electrical testing workshop after hearing this!

Lin Qianxue, a native of Singapore, 24 years old, unmarried, a college graduate from a local polytechnic. After graduating from the Polytechnic Institute, he worked as an assistant engineer at the Ximu Electronics factory. Now he is the workshop director of the electrical testing workshop.

As the top officer of the electrical testing workshop, Lin Qianxue is in charge of the promotion and promotion of the entire electrical testing workshop.

She is a workaholic, and she is also a domineering female boss who changes the tone of the entire electrical testing workshop!

Lin Qianxue is still an overworker. She often gets off work at 5:30, goes home to eat, takes a shower, changes into nice clothes, and then comes back to the factory workshop to inspect the progress of work. According to the company's management requirements, everyone from operators to general managers must wear factory uniforms during daytime working hours. After 5:30 in the afternoon, it can be relatively casual, but this casualness is limited to management.

Li Xiaofan replied calmly: "Officer, we are talking about work!"

In Singapore, Officer is a respectful title for leaders like Lin Qianxue, similar to the current "big brother".

"Really?"

Lin Qianxue looked at Li Xiaofan suspiciously, feeling that the mainland youth in front of her seemed to be different from before.

Before, when she came to inspect, Li Xiaofan would be so nervous that his face turned red and he was at a loss.

Today, he actually looked relaxed, calm, and confident in his eyebrows.

Lin Qianxue turned around and asked Uncle Suba in English: "Is what Li Xiaofan said true?"

"Yes, it is true. We were talking about work and discussing how to speed up the cleaning speed..."

"Very good, don't be lazy!"

Lin Qianxue praised him and stopped before leaving.

"Suba, what language do you use to chat with Li Xiaofan?"

Uncle Suba replied: "Of course it's English! I don't speak Chinese!"

She asked Li Xiaofan in surprise in English: "Li Xiaofan, when did you learn to communicate with Suba in English?"

"I just learned it recently..."

"Oh, really? I really underestimated you before..."

Lin Qianxue muttered and left.

Last year, Li Xiaofan had just arrived in Singapore to work, and was assigned by the Human Resources Department to work in the electrical testing workshop under Lin Qianxue. On the first day of work, Lin Qianxue arranged him to the test group for a trial for half a day, but the result was "unqualified trial", so he was sent to the miserable finishing group to do hard labor.

As for why the "trial failed", it was really a communication problem. Singaporeans' SINGLISH English pronunciation and Mandarin really confused Li Xiaofan, who had just arrived. When the old employees in the test workshop explained the operation of the machine, half of it was in Mandarin and half in Singaporean English, which made him confused. The English of the technical secondary school student was not good to begin with, and coupled with the SINGLISH pronunciation that confused him, he could not understand a word.

Then a misunderstanding occurred that completely eliminated him: During the tea break in the middle of the morning, the day shift team leader Ade went to the WC and asked Li Xiaofan to go to the mold warehouse next door to "turn off the fire" (meaning to turn off the lights). Li Xiaofan went to the mold warehouse next door and found that there was no "fire", so he did nothing. As a result, after drinking tea, team leader Ade came back and found that the lights in the mold warehouse next door were still on. The factory energy-saving patrol inspector posted an "energy-saving warning", which made team leader Ade furious...

Then team leader Ade complained to Lin Qianxue, and then Li Xiaofan was kicked out to the miserable finishing team next door, and then there was no more...