romaurie
12-08-2010, 04:14 PM
I have worked in Israel for 25 years having studied refrigeration with Prestcold at their [now defunct] training school in Greenford.This was after completing a 4 year Ministry of Technology course in electrical/mechanical engineering.
My Hebrew is sufficient for the normal refrigeration service work.But, I recently changed companies and this manager has a new swear word every day!When he gets "wound-up" which in 47 degree C ambient temperatures is often, he starts cursing the air conditioning unit or refrigeration plant and me with an incredible list of expletives.The most repetitive seems to be "SHUM-DUCK".Now languages have never been my strong point.My wife and son however, are very good with languages but are stumped with the new words I am hearing at work now.
I learnt that he [my boss] is of Yemen background which probably explains some of these more colourful curses.
What is gratifying, though, is his enthusiasm over small servicing details that I have acquired over the years.
When you have a leak on the suction and either due to worn valves or the liquid line solenoid will not hold, the back pressure keeps rising after pump down.If one person controls the pressure control to hold 5 inches of vacuum the other can weld and close the leak.Obviously you purge the suction and change the liquid-line filter-drier afterwards.But he was so happy to "close" this particular breakdown using this technique that he had not seen before.
It sort of makes up for when he "throws a wobbly" because he has used a new word preceded with a strange expletive that I do not immediately grasp what he is saying.
I did, however, react in the strongest possible way when I recognized on one occasion he had "grossly" abused my mother in Arabic.I politely explained in Hebrew that although my Hebrew is not strong, I do draw the line when he curses my family.So I could leave now or at the end of the month.He went silent for about 5 minutes.He then completely changed the subject.But later that day explained a cheque had "bounced" for 15000 "shmekels" and he gets very frustrated when I don't understand what he is saying.I could blame the previous company for mainly talking to me in English.Most of the service technicians had a reasonable command of English and many wanted to work overseas.So being able to converse in English or Hebrew was very good for them.Just didn't push me enough to improve my Hebrew.
Interesting that when I moved here in 1985, 2 friends with the same company in southern England decided to take a 3 year contract with "Bermuda Refrigeration/Air Conditioning.They were offering double our pay in the UK with 2 flights home a year.It transpired that service engineers in the US got 3 times our salary so it was cheaper to recruit service engineers from Canada or the UK.The last group they got were from Montreal.Within 6 weeks all were incapable of work after taking advantage of the "Happy Hour" after work.These 2 guys I worked with were Scottish.One played soccer for a local team in the UK.Within a month he had been recruited for the Bermuda soccer team to go on a tour of the US.The other loved skiing.He took his snow skis with him to Bermuda so when he got his "flight-home" he went for a skiing trip in Europe.
It would be great if Duncan Alexander or Gibson Kerr read this.I have not been in contact with them since since 1987.
Laurie Lee Duman
My Hebrew is sufficient for the normal refrigeration service work.But, I recently changed companies and this manager has a new swear word every day!When he gets "wound-up" which in 47 degree C ambient temperatures is often, he starts cursing the air conditioning unit or refrigeration plant and me with an incredible list of expletives.The most repetitive seems to be "SHUM-DUCK".Now languages have never been my strong point.My wife and son however, are very good with languages but are stumped with the new words I am hearing at work now.
I learnt that he [my boss] is of Yemen background which probably explains some of these more colourful curses.
What is gratifying, though, is his enthusiasm over small servicing details that I have acquired over the years.
When you have a leak on the suction and either due to worn valves or the liquid line solenoid will not hold, the back pressure keeps rising after pump down.If one person controls the pressure control to hold 5 inches of vacuum the other can weld and close the leak.Obviously you purge the suction and change the liquid-line filter-drier afterwards.But he was so happy to "close" this particular breakdown using this technique that he had not seen before.
It sort of makes up for when he "throws a wobbly" because he has used a new word preceded with a strange expletive that I do not immediately grasp what he is saying.
I did, however, react in the strongest possible way when I recognized on one occasion he had "grossly" abused my mother in Arabic.I politely explained in Hebrew that although my Hebrew is not strong, I do draw the line when he curses my family.So I could leave now or at the end of the month.He went silent for about 5 minutes.He then completely changed the subject.But later that day explained a cheque had "bounced" for 15000 "shmekels" and he gets very frustrated when I don't understand what he is saying.I could blame the previous company for mainly talking to me in English.Most of the service technicians had a reasonable command of English and many wanted to work overseas.So being able to converse in English or Hebrew was very good for them.Just didn't push me enough to improve my Hebrew.
Interesting that when I moved here in 1985, 2 friends with the same company in southern England decided to take a 3 year contract with "Bermuda Refrigeration/Air Conditioning.They were offering double our pay in the UK with 2 flights home a year.It transpired that service engineers in the US got 3 times our salary so it was cheaper to recruit service engineers from Canada or the UK.The last group they got were from Montreal.Within 6 weeks all were incapable of work after taking advantage of the "Happy Hour" after work.These 2 guys I worked with were Scottish.One played soccer for a local team in the UK.Within a month he had been recruited for the Bermuda soccer team to go on a tour of the US.The other loved skiing.He took his snow skis with him to Bermuda so when he got his "flight-home" he went for a skiing trip in Europe.
It would be great if Duncan Alexander or Gibson Kerr read this.I have not been in contact with them since since 1987.
Laurie Lee Duman