Haichuan’s “Thanksgiving Season”–It’s been years; how are you, master? 【Safety & Environment Zone 001】

Thread Content

This post was last edited by zxz017 on 2016-1-9 at 16:52. I thought to myself that it has been several years since I last saw the master. Haichuan initiating this event particularly evokes my longing. Young people may not have much feeling toward the word “master”. In today’s society, the master-apprentice relationship is no longer common. The tradition of passing on knowledge and experience is gradually weakening and being forgotten. Hai Chuan bringing up the topic of \"being grateful to one’s master\" gave me the chance to relive that feeling; perhaps it also allowed me to rediscover a little of that forgotten tradition. More than twenty years ago, after graduating from university and starting work, my supervisor assigned me to a mentor who guided me in my technical tasks. There is no initiation ceremony, nor is anyone referred to as “Master So-and-So”; instead, they are called “Worker So-and-So”. Back then, the term “master” seemed to be commonly used for frontline production workers. But deep down, I knew this was my master. The master has a junior college degree from the early 1980s (which was already a rare qualification at that time), obtained through further education. Looking back now, those older vocational school graduates were truly the pillars of enterprises; most of them are now in senior leadership positions within various companies. What do they rely on? Constant striving, a spirit of hard work. We must never underestimate the wisdom and abilities of their generation. They are eager to learn and willing to endure hardship. Technically, they possess deep expertise in the processes, equipment, design, and construction of the chemical industry. The gap in foreign languages is their weak point. But they did not give up because of this; holding onto their English-Chinese dictionaries, they studied the English documents and drawings related to engineering projects, and did not fall behind the younger engineers. From the very beginning, as my master took me under his wing, he truly treated me as his own disciple. Everything from clothing to food, shelter, and transportation – they’ve taken care of it all for me. I also deeply feel the care my master has for me. Unlike other colleagues who take apprentices, he didn’t treat me as his ‘servant’ to be used around, but rather helped me with everything. During holidays, he would take me to his home for meals (I was single at that time), and sometimes he would buy holiday gifts for me to give to my parents. Following a master, of course, one wants to learn more skills and make faster progress. I’m afraid the master will hold back information, adopting an attitude of \"letting the apprentice starve while keeping oneself fed\" when teaching them. In fact, such “masters” do exist. The thing my mentor has done that I am most grateful for is his willingness to teach me everything, in great detail and without reservation. Whenever there are good technical materials available, they always involve me in studying and analyzing them, and try their best to provide me with a copy. Let me be reminded in advance about the key technical points. On the surface, the master seems casual, but in terms of technical work he is extremely meticulous. I’ve worked with the master for a total of about five years. These past few years must be the most unforgettable of a lifetime. At other times, although we are in the same company, we are not together. However, we still have frequent phone calls. After leaving my previous employer, I had fewer and fewer opportunities to meet my mentor. Every time we spoke on the phone, he invited me to come and see the projects he was working on. I really want to go, just to see him. Due to family and work commitments, it’s difficult to make it happen. I won’t say more; I wish the master all the best.