Construction boss talks the talk

Chinese supervisor of Kenyan workers beats language barrier by also walking the walk

Tang Haixiang, 51, a construction supervisor on the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya, says that while his English is limited, he has found effective ways to communicate with the Kenyan workers in his team.

Tang's experience - more than two dozen years in construction - undoubtedly helps him manage his team efficiently, as do the seven years he worked in Sudan before arriving in Kenya a year ago.

Tang Haixiang chats to a labor contractor on the construction site of the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway. Photos provided to China Daily

China Road and Bridge Corp is building the massive project linking the regionally key port of Mombasa and the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. But his proactive approach to communicating, using all means at his disposal, is one of the secrets of his success. He even uses a little Swahili, which in Kenya shares official language status with English.

Tang says he remembers the names of workers by marking each syllable in their names with a Chinese character pronounced similarly. He has also chosen a group of Kenyan assistants he calls "small bosses".

"At the very beginning, when we were going to do something, I gathered all of the workers and told them how should they do it, and then I chose those who could understand me well to be 'small bosses'," he says. "My work became much easier after I got help from the small bosses. I only supervise the small bosses and tell them what they should do, but not all of the workers."

Tang's ability to communicate is crucial since he must give orders to many different types of workers, such as machine operators and masons. The team is doing roadbed construction along 12 kilometers of the railway.

"The part we are in charge of is so long, if there is misunderstanding, it can be very troublesome," he says.

Of course, his first efforts at communication occasionally had some humorous results.

The first hires he needed to make were loggers who could chop down trees to make timber piles for construction of a rock crushing plant. As he tried to express himself, he came across a man who had a knife, a perfect prop to communicate cutting. He used all the words he knew and threw in some gestures, too. But the man arrived at the camp the next day with 10 other men - all holding knives.

He had better luck finding masons. One day, dozens of people gathered outside his camp looking for jobs, and one held a triangular rule and other traditional masonry tools. "I went to him and said, 'Tomorrow, sawa'." (Sawa is "OK" in Swahili) "And then, the second day, more than 20 masons came to our camp." He was so happy when he saw them he gave thumbs up.

Tang attributes his management success to enlightened methods and timely communication.

"I treat them well and never call them names. They may have various kinds of requests. I meet the reasonable ones. For those I cannot meet, I explain to them the reasons," he says, adding that in that way everyone is very motivated and nobody carries around complaints against him. "Once I find any problems, I will communicate with them," he adds.

One of Tang's small bosses is Mazimillian Rurumo. The 42-year-old says his boss sometimes uses words he picked up in Sudan, which he doesn't understand. "Though he uses signs and very few words, I understand what he means," he says.

"He is not a person who harasses anybody. I like the way we work here," Rurumo adds.

"More or less, I understand some English and can name the tools in English," Tang says. "Though there is a language barrier, I feel it is easy to manage my team," he says.

"As time goes on, we can understand each other and we can communicate through our heart."

It can be hard, however, for Tang to communicate over the phone. "When I need to ask for certain machines to be sent to a certain place, I will turn to my colleagues around me to let them understand first and then ask them to make the call, or I call the two Chinese interns I have and ask them to do that," he says.

Communication on the job is not the only challenge at the construction site.

A poor phone signal at the site discourages Tang from calling his wife and 15-year-old son in China very often. "The signal is bad. I call my family about every 10 days," he says.

His older son, who is now 21, is also working on the project, but is in a camp about 40 km away. Both are so busy that they see each other only once a month.

A normal workday for him starts at 7 am and ends at 7 pm. Tang says he took off only one day at Lunar New Year, the first day of the first Chinese lunar month, which is the most important festival in China. "When it rains and the construction cannot be continued, I still can't rest since I have to check if any of the construction is affected," he says.

But Tang's hard work and diligence have paid off. His team has always been the best both in quality and rate of progress in Section No 1.

The 472.25-kilometer railroad, the biggest project in Kenya in the past 50 years, is scheduled to be finished in 2017. The Import-Export Bank of China is financing 90 percent of its total $3.8 billion cost. The project is expected to boost economic growth in Kenya by 1.5 percent and encourage commerce with other East African nations.

Tang has no idea how long he will continue to stay in Africa. But he says three of his company's construction sites in Africa have requested him because of his excellent performance in managing his team and ensuring quality.

houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/14/2015 page29)