Young highly educated ladies from Shanghai Call Center take about 350 phone calls from expats every day and answer questions as detail as they can. Photo provided for Shanghai Star

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The Shanghai Call Center receives about 350 calls from expatriates every day, dealing with a variety of issues from education and health inquiries to what to do about a blocked drain. Yu Ran reports.

Taking phone calls and giving advice to foreigners is the daily task of a group of young, highly educated ladies working at the Shanghai Call Center.

They have to answer questions and give advice in foreign languages to hundreds of Shanghai-based foreigners who call in with their questions and difficulties every day.

"Our team is young, enthusiastic and professional and helps expatriates in the city with daily problems at anytime and from anywhere," says Yue Di, director of the Shanghai Call Center, which currently has a team of 60 employees at their 20s from six countries answering about 350 calls from 250 junction lines every day.

Different from other call centers in the city, the Shanghai Call Center hotline (962288) is the first and only 24-hour multi-lingual international hotline service for foreigners to call in and make enquires anytime.

Launched in May 2006, the Shanghai Call Center, with services in 13 languages, is responsible for information including travel, transport, education, health and entertainment assistance for foreigners in Shanghai.

"We are trying to be the language representatives of the city to welcome, accompany and cheer up newly arrived expats by talking to them," Yue says.

Currently, the main language used in the call service is English while French, Korean and Japanese are also regularly used.

For the young female employees, the work is more challenging and complicated than they had anticipated.

"I found that the subjects I have studied for years are way too academic and I struggled to speak proper English, to have normal conversation with the people calling in for help," says Lily You, deputy supervisor of Operations, who is in charge of answering calls from English speakers.

Apart from answering general enquires about addresses, giving directions, and translating, You and her colleagues have to listen and reply very carefully to all kinds of problems such as a dispute between a foreigner and his ayi or give advice when the drain in an apartment toilet is badly clogged up.

You and her colleagues have to be prepared to solve daily issues, from dining, shopping and travel to arguments, medical assistance and even personal and emotional problems.

"I cannot anticipate what I will receive from the incoming call, which is the exciting part of the job, so I have to be active and efficient all the time," You says.

To make sure the language skills of the team keep pace with the growing number of calls they receive, the staff members have to take language training courses twice a week to have their vocabulary and pronunciation match that of native speakers.

"I can guarantee that everyone is making progress every day by working and learning at the same time," Yue says.

The S hanghai Call Center aims to create a comfortable atmosphere for the staff members, especially after moving from an office building to an independent loft in July.

In the two-floor loft, a living room equipped with a coffee machine, a microwave and an oven allows employees to enjoy their lunch and rest periods. A small gym is open in the office for them to relax and exercise after sitting for hours. Employees can also watch movies in their related languages during work hours.

"I love working here with lots of freedom and with friendly colleagues. It is exciting answering unexpected questions from different people via phones," says Cynthia Chou, the chief of the Western Language Service Department from Malaysia.

Chou arrived in Shanghai a few months ago to study Chinese as a total beginner and now she can chat to her colleagues in fluent Chinese. She benefits from the multilingual working environment.

"We're more like a family with common thoughts and hobbies. We share interests, learn languages from each other and grow together," Chou says.