English is Not My First Language

So my Chinese-Indonesian (yes, the race needs to be mentioned) boss is telling me, for the second time around, that I need to improve on my “English Composition.”  He was talking about the first page of a 60-page report that I made from scratch. Yes, from scratch.

The same person who, while interviewing me as an applicant, said I had the best communication skills compared to the rest of the guys in the office. This is the same person that adds an ‘s’ to a singular form noun and the same person who omits an ‘s’ to a present-tense verb. The same person who begins his sentences with “I thinks that…” or “It doesn't seems to be..."

“I know English is not our first language” he says.

Improve on my English composition, he says. To me, who went on business writing training and the only comment the instructor had was that I had awesome handwriting. To me.

"The composition is very elementary'' he says. He was talking about an Executive Summary for a report to be submitted to the military. Very elementary? You mean, short, concise and direct to the point? Just how a summary should be?

The last time he said this not-our-first-language comment, I asked a white American (yes, the race needs to be mentioned) colleague to mark-up my narrative. He did some very minor comments and voila! No more comments from the boss.

So this time, I already knew what to tell him. That I will ask another ‘English-speaking’ colleague to help me revise (which, mind you, has already reviewed my report TWICE!)

If only this was a sit-com then I would have been able to say ‘GO WRITE IT YOURSELF! I QUIT!’ If only, then I would be laughing right now.

Note that I am not claiming perfection; but having different approaches, like in composition does not mean the other one sucks. I am sure I am just pissed right now, I usually don't take criticism easily. Maybe in a few more minutes I will be laughing at the irony of this all.

'Boss, enrolls us to english training so me writes better englishes.'  Now, I am beginning to sound like Smeagol. Haha! Okay, enough ranting, back to work!

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As a side story, this is typical of our boss who, when stressed about SOMETHING ELSE, lashes out on the rest of his employees as if they have done nothing right. At least make them feel that way.

So, typically:
Good mood boss = good job employee.
Bad mood boss = bad job employee.