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Living in China: at the wake of Shanghai World Expo, lack of services in English still a challenge

Shanghai Expats are feeling a bit language-challenged in Shanghai’s taxis, buses and shopping venues, according to a report released recently.

Shanghai Expats are feeling a bit language-challenged in Shanghai’s taxis, buses and shopping venues, according to a report released recently.

More than 200 foreigners living in the Pudong New Area and Changning District‘s Hongqiao area were interviewed by two students and a teacher at Shanghai International Studies University about their degree of satisfaction with local services.

About 49 percent said they were dissatisfied with cabs because few drivers can speak English. For the same reason, 34 percent said they weren’t happy with buses.

“Many foreigners avoid taking buses alone,” said Luo Xuemei, a professor of the school’s s International Finance and Trade Department. She added: “They have to use tourist manuals or call others to tell the taxi driver about where they want to go.

“Complaints about taxis have regularly topped city surveys of expat grievances. Previous reports revealed a great number of complaints about overcharges due to deliberate detours and refusals to accept short rides.

“Shanghai needs to improve its English service in the public transport network before the 2010 Shanghai World Expo next year to exempt expats of the worries of communications,” Luo said.

About 31 percent of the expats also expressed dissatisfaction with Shanghai shopping.

“Though many big shopping malls have English signs and service centers, individual sales worker’s English is always too poor to meet the needs of expats,” Luo said.

Also in the survey, about 15 percent said they are dissatisfied with the English service in medical institutions.

“A high-level medical service is indispensable to maintain foreign professionals,” Luo said.

via Shanghai Daily | English Window to China News.

By Itamar Medeiros

Originally from Brazil, Itamar Medeiros currently lives in Germany, where he works as VP of Design Strategy at SAP and lecturer of Project Management for UX at the M.Sc. Usability Engineering at the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences .

Working in the Information Technology industry since 1998, Itamar has helped truly global companies in multiple continents create great user experience through advocating Design and Innovation principles. During his 7 years in China, he promoted the User Experience Design discipline as User Experience Manager at Autodesk and Local Coordinator of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) in Shanghai.

Itamar holds a MA in Design Practice from Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), for which he received a Distinction Award for his thesis Creating Innovative Design Software Solutions within Collaborative/Distributed Design Environments.

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