How to Pay your Utility Bill in China

We're going to make this as clear as possible, so that even you can do it:

Step 1: Open up your WeChat group chat for Room 2402 Building A to a message from Landlady--I did you a favor by already translating it for you:

(Side note: Tina is paid by LL to help her with her foreign customers.)

Here is the rest of the *translated* conversation:

Tina Tu: Okay, let me see how I can pay you, huh?

LL: Mmmmmm

Stella: I don't know.

Tina Tu: It's okay it's done.

Jacky: (I didn't know he was on this group chat??) Well, I confirmed this with Tom, Tom will link the water, electricity and coal together to his Alipay, later by Tom himself. The landlord paid this time, I'll pay the landlord.

Jacky: Thanks Tina, the landlord for helping. The cost I direct WeChat to you? In addition, how to open the invoice of hydropower coal?

Jacky: Tina, do you know that electricity, water and coal costs can open a company?

Tina: You can.

Tina: You can apply for electronic invoices online.

Tina: I'll ask how to turn on the water and gas this afternoon.

Tina: Electricity. I'm sending it to you now.

Jacky: Okay, Thank you.

End of conversation.

Step 2: When Tom gets home ask him about it. His reply? "I don't know what in the world is going on!" "I don't have any clue how to pay it!" (Clearly we need a translator for the translator!!)

Step 3: Just keep waiting until the end of July for your pay check to come so you can finally get paid so you can pay Jacky back for all of the times he's saved your bacon! Maybe by then we'll have figured things out a little bit more....

It works really well!

----------------

Just one more mysterious translation from this same chat group:

LL: Maintenance master more than 1 pm clock in the past, home anyone?

We are hoping we can do things right most of the time and that people will be patient with us as we translate the translations! But yes, I was home at 1:00 for the maintenance man to come. In which I had another communication problem because I couldn't understand his sign language for 'hair dryer', which apparently was needed for fixing the bidet (?). Perhaps using a translator that needs translating works quite a bit better than sign language! In the end, Maintenance Man used a translator to say hair dryer and I could actually say "mei you" which means don't have! Thank you President Nelson, I learned that one in your book Insights. Go team.

Comments

Final Service Project--you can help!

Our time in China is quickly coming to an end. We will be moving back to the US at the end of June. I have had several impressions to conclude our time here with a service project. I have learned that the local children's hospital is building a library and is in need of books. My original plan was to involve many Chinese people in this project so they could feel the joy of service. However as I have experienced over and over again, service is a very difficult concept for the Chinese people. Their culture requires them to keep tabs of who they owe and who owes them. They will not give if they don't see a direct benefit for themselves. In addition to this, they lack trust because scams are rampant. Thus, my requests for them to help with my project haven't gone anywhere. I don't blame them and I feel deeply for them. So my goals for the project have changed. While Tom and I can provide many books to the library because books are ...

Christmas Wishes

Christmas is hard to find in China. Most external things that signal to us that Christmastime coming is missing here. We have to look hard to find Christmas trees and decorations. The typical holiday events and gatherings are missing. Snow or anticipation of snow is absent. The music is almost non-existent. Giving to others is not accepted (it causes extreme embarrassment because they feel like they owe you). This has caused me to look harder and be thankful for the Merry Christmas wishes I do find. I've also had to use my own initiative to fulfil my other Christmas wishes. Here are some of my Christmas wishes for 2024 found and created: Generally, the government discourages the people from celebrating the 'Western' holiday. But a few places do find a way to wish me a Merry Christmas! This year we had very vibrant Christmas colors in our complex. They were stunning, Christmasy and very cheerful! (pictures taken mid December) Th...

While We Are Waiting: Temples!

I love the temple. When I first learned of the possibility of us moving to China in December 2019, one of my first questions was "How can I leave the temple?" That question was answered in part during the closure of temples in 2020. However, when the joint venture was signed and Tom was officially offered the position in China in November 2020, I began fasting and praying that I would be able to attend the temple just once before we left. Our original flights were for July 7, 2021 and just a few weeks before that, our temple opened up and miraculously we were able to get 2 appointments for baptisms and 4 other appointments for Tom and I before our departure date. I can't express my deep gratitude for those 6 precious appointments. Then when we didn't obtain a visa in time for those flights and access to nearby temples was given, I took up a new hobby. Temple scheduling. The girls teased me it was a bit of an obsessed hobby; but since we will go ...

This Great Work

Search This Blog