Countries and Nationalities in the Company

Ai-ling is talking to Andrea Schneider who works in the marketing department about the different people working in the company.

Ai-ling – Can you tell me who the human resources director is?
Andrea – That is Maria Alvarez. She is from Spain. We actually have a lot of Spanish people working for this company.
Ai-ling – Oh really, why is that?
Andrea – We have a branch in Barcelona and the Spanish colleagues often come to Hamburg for a kind of gap year, just like you. We have a lot of other nationalities working here as well. Here is our organigram
Ai-ling – Oh I see, that’s interesting. Who is Jacques DuPont?
Andrea – He is our procurement manager. He’s French.
Ai-ling – Do you also have a branch in France then?
Andrea – No we don’t. Jacques is married to a German woman and she didn’t want to go to France so they live in Hamburg. Jacques has a purchasing manager called Hakan Karakas. As you may guess, he is Turkish. His family moved to Hamburg many years ago and he grew up here in Germany.
Ai-ling – I see. And who is Evelyn Bishop?
Andrea – She is from Australia. She came to Germany to study and liked it so much she ended up staying here. She met a guy from Poland and they are now married and have 2 children.
Ai-ling – Wow, you are very multicultural here!
Andrea – Yes, we are. And now we have you here from China as well. We also have a lady from Japan called Ying Zhang. She is very nice.
Ai-ling – Oh that’s very interesting because Zhang is actually a Chinese name.
Andrea – Yes, I remember she told me that her family moved to Japan many years ago and that’s why she is now Japanese. A friend of mine went to Russia last year to study the language and also met a lot of people from Japan. There were also a lot of people from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria at the university. Russian is a very popular language to study. The Russian economy is coming out of its slump and Russia is now becoming an important trading partner.
Ai-ling – Hamburg isn’t too far from Poland. Do many people speak Polish?
Andrea – Only the Polish. It is a very difficult language for foreigners to learn and from a business point of view it is not necessary. Now that they are in the EU there is a big market for English language training in Poland.
Ai-ling – Yes, in China English language training is popular too. The English language trainers come from all over the world, for example they are British, Irish, American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealanders.
Andrea – Oh New Zealand. I would love to go to New Zealand. The country offers a lot of variety in terms of landscape, people, and extreme sports.
Ai-ling – I have been to New Zealand. I went there only for a weekend when I was on holiday in Australia.
Andrea – I spent my last holiday in Denmark. It was OK but the beer is too expensive. But next year I am going to go to Italy. I love Italian food and men!
Ok, shall we have a cup of coffee?
Ai-Ling – Sure, let’s go!