I conducted an interview at work on Friday.   Nice guy, seemed quite competent and driven, yet he appeared overly nervous and did poorly on the technical part of the interview.   I suspect he was better than what he showed me.   I’ve given so many interviews that they’re second nature to me now, and I usually assume that people’s nervousness is due to typical interview anticipation.   However, after we finished, our HR representative came to me with a serious look on her face and told me with an even, soft tone, “The candidate admitted to me that he was very nervous talking to you because you are the first foreigner he’s talked to or had an interview with.”

My Chinese teacher told me a similar story recently.   She recounted to me her story of finishing her masters degere and getting out of college, moving to Shenzhen, getting a job as a Chinese teacher, then going on her first lesson to my apartment totally nervous, not knowing what to expect from a wild-eyed barbarian from the West.

It would be rare to run into these situations in the US, but it just goes to show the lingering effects of China shutting itself off from the world for so long.   That’s got to be one of the root causes that makes living and working in China so fascinating.