5. Learning English through Workplace Communication
The Hong Kong Daily is asking students to submit an article about their summer job experiences. You were employed as a costumed character performer in one of the local theme parks last summer. In your article, write about your typical working day, and the good things and bad things about your job. Write the article.
Amazing Working Experiences in Disneyland
When it comes to looking for summer jobs, most students might not be lucky enough to get one that is beneficial to their future career development as such job opportunities are rarely available on the market.
Last summer, I was very fortunate to have been invited by my career teacher to participate in Disneyland's Summer Youth Employment Program that allowed me to work as a costumed character performer even though I had neither professional qualifications nor related job experience.
A typical working day
I began work at 8:00am, half an hour before my supervisor's arrival. After the roll call, he started to assign duties to each performer on the summer employment program. I could choose between taking photos with visitors under the hot weather and promoting products in a team in an air-conditioned environment. The performers would not be able to see anything after dressing up, so each performer needed to work with two dedicated helpers who were responsible for his/her safety. After the lunchtime from 2:00pm to 3:00pm, all the performers needed to prepare for the parade beginning at 4:00pm. Based on the theme of the day, the manager arranged different performers to act as different cartoon characters, like Mickey and Donald Duck. Although most performers were still on duty after the parade, I called it a day as I was a part-time performer, and I left Disneyland at around 5:30pm.
Wonderful welfare
One obvious advantage of working in Disneyland was the attractive compensation system, be it direct or non-direct compensation. The salary of a costumed character performer was sixty dollars per hour, which was nearly double that of a typical summer job such as a salesman's job or a cleaner's. In terms of non-direct compensation, there were a daily lunch subsidy of 100 dollars and three staff tickets per month.
Heavy workload and undesirable working environment
Not only did I need to act as cartoon characters in front of visitors, but I also needed to tidy up the dressing room where costumes were stored. So heavy was my workload that I had to arrive early for the preparations. Moreover, the working environment of the costumed character performers was extremely undesirable. Wearing heavy clothes with poor ventilation under the sunlight drove me crazy during the whole summer holiday. So poor was ventilation that I had no feeling of coolness even though I worked in an air-conditioning environment.
