Battle with French Admin I happened during the Prefecture Saga in which there was no winner. It was a draw then. I didn’t get the Carte de Sejour in the end. But I got back my 55 euros. Well, I lost in time and a little bus fare. But I gained in experience and got to know Ana. Anyway, Battle with French Admin II actually begun when I went to the bank yesterday. That, perhaps was just a skirmish, a prequel of the real battle. At 11am, I went to INSA as requested by the lady. However, she told me to come back in the afternoon because her superior wasn’t around. Still with a smile, I left the office. But of course that smile was fake. Back in the office, Laurent said he had just applied for a job in Hungary. And he was still wearing that red Hungarian T shirt. For 3 days without washing. Kao. I asked him to call the bank and asked if I can close the account in Paris instead. The answer was a straight no. Then I thought of another problem. My payment for the Easyjet flight has not yet been deducted and now that I am closing my bank account, I don’t what to do. Emailing them would take years for them to reply and probably still leaving my question unanswered. Just before lunch, hui found the number for me to call Easyjet.
During lunch, I told Mr. Giant about my admin problem. He said that when he was here for training in 2001, something funny happened when he closed his bank account. He went to the bank (the same one as mine), and said he want to close the account. The bank asked him to return the RIB (this is a little identity card which can be printed from the bank’s website. It is an official proof here for any transaction. For example, if the company needs your bank info so as to pay you, you just give them this RIB), which he did and then he emptied his account on that day. Without surrendering his check book and blue card! He still has them now. They didn’t ask for his ID also. They just took that paper RIB from him and gave him all his money. Which means anyone with that RIB can just go and withdraw all the money and close the account. No verification. While I was complaining to him, he said that all admin in the world is the same; inefficient. This I beg to differ. At least not for SG. But then, back in SG, I was just a student and didn’t have to deal with so much admin and hence maybe it is just that I am unaware about it.
After lunch, I tried to call Easyjet and it was machine voice again. This time it was worse. I followed the instruction when told to press ‘1’ for English and then the phone hung. I tried again and again and in the end gave up and left my colleague’s room. I told hui about it and he said he will try. He faced the same problem. It turned out that it is not easyjet’s fault but INRIA’s. Their phone system is really confusing and caused that problem. Hui said he would help to call from a payphone because my card was really running low. In the end, it was confirmed that easyjet deducted and had received the money. But why it wasn’t reflected in my account, I do not know. I then went to INSA again to settle the 130 euros deposit issue. When I was there, there was a middle-age man in suit being attended by the lady. The lady saw me, paused and told me that she can only credit the money into my bank account earliest on 30 June. Then she signalled me to go without even hearing what I had to say. 30 June or 30 July make no difference to me because I wouldn’t be around to close the account, you fool! She just told me to close it after 30 June and that’s it. I was really furious. I told her to finish attending that man first then talk to me. I can wait. I hated to be dismissed like that.
And so I waited and finally she had finished. She explained again to me. Then she asked me again if I speak French. Damn it! How many times must I tell you I DON’T SPEAK FRENCH! She gave a frustrated look and sighed. Nabei. I told her that in the first place I need not pay that deposit because I am from IRISA. She explained something about that policy to me. From what I gathered, it seemed like the policy was only implemented recently after I arrived. Ok, if that’s the case I have nothing to say. Then I wanted to tell her how difficult it would be for me to close my bank account on a future date. She didn’t want to listen to my explanation at all. She said she will call Anatole but I told her he is not around. As I had told her yesterday also. Then I really gave up because she didn’t want to talk to me anymore. I told her I will go back and ask some senior guy to talk to her. I had Kadi in mind. She said good and I left without saying Au Revoir for the first time. I was really unhappy not because that policy didn’t apply to me. Not because she can’t do anything for me. But because she didn’t even want to listen to my bank problem! Basket.
I went back to look for Kadi and found Mark and Pascal in his room. They said he is in Britain now. Wah lew. So suey. Then I decided to look for Marie-Claude. I told her about the INSA problem. She said I don’t have to worry because she is sure I can close my bank account on a future date. All foreigners in IRISA did that. And they will use their card to withdraw the remaining money from the ATM in their countries. I told her the bank said I have to return my card and check book but she said no. Then I told her about the currency issue. I wouldn’t be able to withdraw every cent out because after conversion, there will be cents and dollars and the min. denominator of ATM is 10. I would be able to know how much euros I have in my bank through the internet. But after the conversion, I wouldn’t know how much I can withdraw from the ATM in SGD. I am not sure if there is an option in the ATM that allows me to withdraw all I have in the account. She didn’t understand all these chim stuffs. I told her I need to speak to the bank people and she gave me a name card. She said that this person Severine, is the contact person dealing with foreigners in IRISA. Previously it was Chebourou who helped to open my account but she had quitted. Marie-Claude always corresponds with her and so she will understand all these issues. She told me to look for her again if there is still problem.
I went back to the office and called that number. A lady picked up the phone but she wasn’t Serevine. Since she can spoke English, she tried to help me. However, in the end, I don’t think she got what I wanted to say. Then I told her I want to make an appointment with Serevine to talk to her face to face. She told me she is on holiday. Wah Kao! Bu hui bah? So coincidental? First it was Kadi, now Serevine? However, she made an appointment for me with another person; a Lesaje. I don’t even know this is a guy or a girl. Anyway, I will have to go down tomorrow at 10am. Towards the end of the day, Anatole sent me an email telling me that INSA emailed him about my problem. He said the misunderstanding must be because of language barrier and he jokingly said I didn’t learn my French well enough. Nene. He explained to me the situation and said he will discuss with INSA when he returns on Wed. In the meantime, he told me I can ask people from the team to call INSA. I replied him that I understood about the policy issue. I told him about my bank problem which I will try to solve tomorrow. I also read the email that lady sent to him. She said that as I can’t speak a word of French, hence the problem. gnn. Why not say, you can’t speak a word of English?
She must have thought that I felt cheated and angry and therefore sent an email to Anatole. But I wasn’t really angry with her though she should at least listen to what I have to say. I was angry with the inflexibility of the system. If they can just give me back my money earlier then I will be able to close the account normally. No need to write letter, make appointment, etc. Settling this admin stuff really drains a lot of my energy. Worst of all, despite how unhappy I am, I still have to jia jia smile at them. Unlike in SG, we can demand things to be done in our way, esp. if the admin is at fault. Here, if I were to show sign of frustration, I think I will never get my money back. And I am really tired to keep apologising for not speaking French. I am not a French! I would love to speak the language if I can or given a chance to learn. I don’t even mind if people expect me to speak French here. I don’t mind really. But please, don’t DEMAND that I speak French! The truth is none of this is my fault and I am a bloody victim. But from their tone and expressions, it seems as if my inability of speaking their language caused them much trouble. Even the locals agree that French admin is always not easy to deal with. It almost seems as if it is the right of the French admin to be inefficient. Anyway, I will be “yi zhu gang da fan yi chuan ren” if I were to label French admin as the lousiest admin in the world. I need to first live in other foreign countries, esp. those that do not speak my language in order to tell the difference. But for the moment, I hate the French admin.
During lunch, I told Mr. Giant about my admin problem. He said that when he was here for training in 2001, something funny happened when he closed his bank account. He went to the bank (the same one as mine), and said he want to close the account. The bank asked him to return the RIB (this is a little identity card which can be printed from the bank’s website. It is an official proof here for any transaction. For example, if the company needs your bank info so as to pay you, you just give them this RIB), which he did and then he emptied his account on that day. Without surrendering his check book and blue card! He still has them now. They didn’t ask for his ID also. They just took that paper RIB from him and gave him all his money. Which means anyone with that RIB can just go and withdraw all the money and close the account. No verification. While I was complaining to him, he said that all admin in the world is the same; inefficient. This I beg to differ. At least not for SG. But then, back in SG, I was just a student and didn’t have to deal with so much admin and hence maybe it is just that I am unaware about it.
After lunch, I tried to call Easyjet and it was machine voice again. This time it was worse. I followed the instruction when told to press ‘1’ for English and then the phone hung. I tried again and again and in the end gave up and left my colleague’s room. I told hui about it and he said he will try. He faced the same problem. It turned out that it is not easyjet’s fault but INRIA’s. Their phone system is really confusing and caused that problem. Hui said he would help to call from a payphone because my card was really running low. In the end, it was confirmed that easyjet deducted and had received the money. But why it wasn’t reflected in my account, I do not know. I then went to INSA again to settle the 130 euros deposit issue. When I was there, there was a middle-age man in suit being attended by the lady. The lady saw me, paused and told me that she can only credit the money into my bank account earliest on 30 June. Then she signalled me to go without even hearing what I had to say. 30 June or 30 July make no difference to me because I wouldn’t be around to close the account, you fool! She just told me to close it after 30 June and that’s it. I was really furious. I told her to finish attending that man first then talk to me. I can wait. I hated to be dismissed like that.
And so I waited and finally she had finished. She explained again to me. Then she asked me again if I speak French. Damn it! How many times must I tell you I DON’T SPEAK FRENCH! She gave a frustrated look and sighed. Nabei. I told her that in the first place I need not pay that deposit because I am from IRISA. She explained something about that policy to me. From what I gathered, it seemed like the policy was only implemented recently after I arrived. Ok, if that’s the case I have nothing to say. Then I wanted to tell her how difficult it would be for me to close my bank account on a future date. She didn’t want to listen to my explanation at all. She said she will call Anatole but I told her he is not around. As I had told her yesterday also. Then I really gave up because she didn’t want to talk to me anymore. I told her I will go back and ask some senior guy to talk to her. I had Kadi in mind. She said good and I left without saying Au Revoir for the first time. I was really unhappy not because that policy didn’t apply to me. Not because she can’t do anything for me. But because she didn’t even want to listen to my bank problem! Basket.
I went back to look for Kadi and found Mark and Pascal in his room. They said he is in Britain now. Wah lew. So suey. Then I decided to look for Marie-Claude. I told her about the INSA problem. She said I don’t have to worry because she is sure I can close my bank account on a future date. All foreigners in IRISA did that. And they will use their card to withdraw the remaining money from the ATM in their countries. I told her the bank said I have to return my card and check book but she said no. Then I told her about the currency issue. I wouldn’t be able to withdraw every cent out because after conversion, there will be cents and dollars and the min. denominator of ATM is 10. I would be able to know how much euros I have in my bank through the internet. But after the conversion, I wouldn’t know how much I can withdraw from the ATM in SGD. I am not sure if there is an option in the ATM that allows me to withdraw all I have in the account. She didn’t understand all these chim stuffs. I told her I need to speak to the bank people and she gave me a name card. She said that this person Severine, is the contact person dealing with foreigners in IRISA. Previously it was Chebourou who helped to open my account but she had quitted. Marie-Claude always corresponds with her and so she will understand all these issues. She told me to look for her again if there is still problem.
I went back to the office and called that number. A lady picked up the phone but she wasn’t Serevine. Since she can spoke English, she tried to help me. However, in the end, I don’t think she got what I wanted to say. Then I told her I want to make an appointment with Serevine to talk to her face to face. She told me she is on holiday. Wah Kao! Bu hui bah? So coincidental? First it was Kadi, now Serevine? However, she made an appointment for me with another person; a Lesaje. I don’t even know this is a guy or a girl. Anyway, I will have to go down tomorrow at 10am. Towards the end of the day, Anatole sent me an email telling me that INSA emailed him about my problem. He said the misunderstanding must be because of language barrier and he jokingly said I didn’t learn my French well enough. Nene. He explained to me the situation and said he will discuss with INSA when he returns on Wed. In the meantime, he told me I can ask people from the team to call INSA. I replied him that I understood about the policy issue. I told him about my bank problem which I will try to solve tomorrow. I also read the email that lady sent to him. She said that as I can’t speak a word of French, hence the problem. gnn. Why not say, you can’t speak a word of English?
She must have thought that I felt cheated and angry and therefore sent an email to Anatole. But I wasn’t really angry with her though she should at least listen to what I have to say. I was angry with the inflexibility of the system. If they can just give me back my money earlier then I will be able to close the account normally. No need to write letter, make appointment, etc. Settling this admin stuff really drains a lot of my energy. Worst of all, despite how unhappy I am, I still have to jia jia smile at them. Unlike in SG, we can demand things to be done in our way, esp. if the admin is at fault. Here, if I were to show sign of frustration, I think I will never get my money back. And I am really tired to keep apologising for not speaking French. I am not a French! I would love to speak the language if I can or given a chance to learn. I don’t even mind if people expect me to speak French here. I don’t mind really. But please, don’t DEMAND that I speak French! The truth is none of this is my fault and I am a bloody victim. But from their tone and expressions, it seems as if my inability of speaking their language caused them much trouble. Even the locals agree that French admin is always not easy to deal with. It almost seems as if it is the right of the French admin to be inefficient. Anyway, I will be “yi zhu gang da fan yi chuan ren” if I were to label French admin as the lousiest admin in the world. I need to first live in other foreign countries, esp. those that do not speak my language in order to tell the difference. But for the moment, I hate the French admin.
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