Rendered speechless

O Profanity. Who chooses to use it? For some, it is the intuitive adjective/adverb of choice when expressing one's emotions. For everyone else that has to listen to this expression, it is ear-grating, unsophisticated noise pollution.
In a customer service role, of course I'm gonna get sworn at. Expecting this, however, does not make the experience one bit more pleasant. No matter if the profanity is directed at you, at the situation or at frustration in general, it can easily put any receiver of those sound waves in a bad mood. Knowing how to overcome this mood funk is key to sustainable enthusiasm in service, but does this involve becoming callous?
I don't swear and I don't appreciate people swearing around me. People choose to swear; I can't control their choice. But I can mitigate the situation to be less profanity-inducing. This calls for higher skills in service, and that is something I will continue to work on.
When that doesn't work, though, I will scorn their language in my heart but double pleasantness in their face, so that they may feel shame and be rendered speechless, the opposite way.

HOW TO AIRPORT (part I): Check-in Luggage

Air travel can be daunting for some and hassle-/frustration-prone for many. On a scale of fumbling-with-itineraries-and-oops-forgot-my-passport to frequent-flyer-I-fly-like-a-boss, what are you like? Here are a few tips that can help everyone out, no matter the number of points you have in your mileage bank. Today, we're discussing check-in luggage.

1. Know your limit, pack within it. 

Don't be the person that has to repack in front of the check-in counters muttering pitifully to no one's ears, "I didn't know..." Every airline has different luggage policies, so be sure to check before you start packing. There is usually some mention of check-in luggage limits on your itinerary; if not, you could always check your airline's website. Nowadays, many airlines have become more strict with carry-on luggage, especially low-cost and vacation carriers. Dimensions, or size, are also important, especially for carry-on luggage.

Celebrity Sightings are...

...actually not that rare at the airport.

It's just that I usually miss out.

Two reasons: 

1) I don't know the celebrity. 
Our outbound flight today was graced with the company of a young Taiwanese singer and her entourage of managers/stylists/assistants---a whopping total of 15 people for one person. I was on the arrival shift today so I'd missed the departure briefing, during which our team had initially been informed of this special passenger.

(Rather anti-climatically, everyone present at that briefing was either Japanese or Korean, so no one knew who she was. The supervisor and I were asked later if we knew, and we didn't either...)

I googled her when I got home. She made her name as a finalist in a popular competitive singing TV show in Taiwan, has released a few albums already, cameo'd in a few dramas and has the sweetest voice. Sitting in the waiting area this afternoon, the star had looked just like any other passenger. No matter how high one soars, one is first-and-foremost-ly a person.

2) I'm just not there.
One afternoon a number of months ago, I was making my way towards the airport's rapid transit station after a shift. Completely ready to go home, I initiated relax-mode by going on tumblr to check activities of an idol band I follow.

 I board the train, start scrolling, and see fan-taken pictures of one of the members in front of an eerily familiar background. There's a weird chimney-looking monument in the shot, one I'd taken notice of and wondered about before. I look out the train window, and then it hit me: it was our airport's international arrivals curbside. I do a bit more digging and find out that the band member was at the airport that very morning. As in two hours ago. As in when I was working. As in I could have seen him.

As the airport from my view, I inwardly wonder at the controller of luck who'd decided that he/she/it'd mess with my life that day. Picking a fight with a lowly fangirl is a petty move, man.

After I finished moping, I thought about why he came here today. The idol band member had just launched his career last year in South Korea, but he hails from my country, from our shared City of Rain. Apparently this trip was a personal one; according to fans, no agency staff went with him and he was picked up at curbside by personal friends. He was coming home.

This entire event irrationally made him my favourite band member for a while, because of the idea of my idols being so close to home. But I really love being part of this place that, as soon as you touchdown on the runway, you immediately feel at ease. I love being part of the excitement and the comfort, the feeling of security, knowing that you're safe and that home is just a few blocks away.

Speaking the Language of Home

Information: I currently work as a passenger service agent in a North American international airport.

I speak a few languages. Mandarin is my official mother-tongue, but I am more comfortable with English. I learned French for five years and have recently picked up some Korean from the sheer amount of their dramas and variety shows I've watched during the past three years. In Japanese, I know that "fragile items" are called "kowaremono".

Today was my first day as arrival-in-charge in training. My OJT trainer is a seasoned arrival-in-charge agent; he grew up in Hong Kong, went to college in Japan, worked in Hong Kong for years and is now working as a Japanese/Mandarin agent for an heritage Asian airline in North America. Thanks to his help, all wheelchair passengers were cared for, all unaccompanied minors were picked up, all bags were accounted for. Despite my nerves, the first two hours of my shift went by quickly and smoothly.

Back at the boarding gate, another arrival agent and I were conducting passport checks. Today's gate had glass walls around the waiting area and only one access point. Standing by that door, the two of us were able to toll 99% of our passengers.

One gate down was another Asian airline's flight, departing at around the same time as ours. It was usually rather easy to differentiate between our passengers; the main ethnicities matched the nationalities of each airline. As my colleague and I were discussing the adorableness of our passenger's baby, a man rounded the corner into the corridor of our two airlines. 

He strolled by, waving his hand, "Wo shi Han guo ren..." and walked towards our neighbouring gate.

I chuckled and replied, "Annyeonghaseyo!"

He laughed in surprise and left. I turned my head back toward my gate, and did a mental double-take.

A Korean man, in a Canadian airport, says to an agent of a Japanese airline, in Mandarin, that he is Korean.

It is so awesome to be in such a comfortable environment, where everybody brings their heritage to share and everybody understands each other, somehow. It's the feeling of crowding with friends before a hotpot or a bucket of fried chicken. I treasure this feeling a lot; it's still rare and less-than-complete in this world, but it's a little more abundant in the airport. At this intersection of cultures and languages, purposes and dreams, time zones and time, hugs and handshakes; I contently sip my Iced Capp, knowing that, above differences, we are all just trying to get home.

And as long as Earth is home, we're all getting there. 

for reference: OJT = On-the-job training

"Wo shi Han guo ren"  = "I am Korean" in Mandarin, pin-yin'd (romanized)

"Annyeonghaseyo" = "Hello" in Korean

Iced Capp = blended coffee-slush drink of choice of most employees at our airport, sold at the chain's five locations in the terminal