Report on Fieldwork

Major: English
Class: 131262
Name: Yin Mengdi ()
Date: March 27, 2017



During this winter vacation, I was fortunate to practice in Luannan County people s
Government Office in Hebei Province. In many peoples eyes, the government is a sacred
and mysterious place. So it is my great honor to have this opportunity for this job as an
intern, which can make me experience the daily life of civil servants in the government.
Known for its regular work time, a long rest at noon, and a fixed and relaxing timetable, the
civil service is taken for granted that it is a good job. However, in the practice of a month
and a half, I got to see the real situation of the peoples public servants.
In the beginning, I thought the government office was just one of the departments in
the government, but it was not until then that I found out that the government office is a
general term, which is responsible for the distribution of departments in various fields.
During this period of time, I came to be aware of some functions of the government office.
First, they are in charge of drafting, reviewing the documents issued by the district
government and the district government office, the important speeches by the district
government leaders and the important comprehensive materials. Second, they are also
responsible for the important activities of the district government liaison, coordination,
organization work. Third, they are responsible for the work of government affairs, incoming
call processing and file, confidential work, etc. And the responsibility of my internship
work is: to send and receive documents, information entry, telephone notification,
documentation and so on. So I think this job can make me accumulate some experience for
the future and be able to train myself.
For my part, the original concept of government is a place where civil servants gather.
Speaking of the civil servants lunch, many people will associate it with feast. However,
when I had lunch with them for the first time, I was surprised by what I saw. Inside the
government compound, all the workers were in the cafeteria of the building having lunch.
The way of eating was the same as that in the university. All this let people see the great
efforts that the government has made to improve the image of civil servants. The
establishment of the image of civil servants not only needs the constraints of the system,

but also the need for their own awareness. For several times I have seen that some leaders
went to the cafeteria for lunch right after the meeting. Originally, they have enough reasons
to go to the outside restaurants to eat, but they have not done so. Honesty has become a
kind of self-consciousness. In addition to eating, traveling can also reflect the clean image
and the new style of civil servants. In the government, only the bureau-level cadres can be
equipped with cars and drivers. Other officials should apply to the relevant departments
before they want to use a car. On one occasion, I went to attend a meeting with a director of
the unit, and it was more than half an hours journey. The road to the destination was pretty
rugged, and we were just sitting in a minibus which jolted us badly. I observed the side of
several peers in the minibus who seemed to have been accustomed to this situation, and
they did not complain about it. All this, if not seen with my own eyes, perhaps, I will be like
a lot of people who have some bias against the officials in the government. I think a lot of
people have a wide variety of doubts about the work of the government, the quality of civil
servants, etc. These, to a large extent, were caused by the communication barriers between
the government and the masses. If the government improve the transparency of the
operation, and let the masses understand the behavior of government officials, it would help
them establish the prestige of the government and the image of civil servants in front of the
masses. There will be a virtuous circle in the society.
People often use a cup of tea, a piece of newspaper to summarize the routine work
of the government officials. However, when I came to the city government, the most
exposed is the meeting. Every day, there were different kinds of meetings, which were held
in different places and needed different people to participate. One of my assignments was
making notification by telephone, which included the meeting time, place and people who
would attend the meeting. It is not easy to be a leader who often catches up with different
meetings. In addition, before the meeting, the leader must consult a lot of information and
prepare for each field of speech, and these jobs often take more than half a day to complete.
In fact, as the governments civil servants, what is the essence of their work? The meetings

are numerous, reflecting the government still plays the role of decision-maker. But the
fact has long been confirmed that the government should play the role of guidance and
macro-control. If everything is decided by the government, there will inevitably be a
menace of the rule by man. In such a decision-making system of government and society,
there must be hidden dangers. I believe that the government has long been aware of the
existence of the problem, but the road of reform must be difficult. Government reform is a
key step in the development of China.
On the first day I came to Peoples Government in my hometown, I was arranged by
an office administrator. He gave me a lot of paper work to do. He also taught me how to use
the computer to record information and how to use the printer. At the beginning, I was very
embarrassed, because the people in the office are a few years older than me, and I could not
find anything to communicate with them. I just sat down at the computer desk, doing the
tasks that were assigned by my director. I found that they were all very busy, and they did
not have idle time to chat with each other. So I went up to them and said, Is there anything
I can do for you? They were happy and said that it would be nice if I could help with the
documents. Thus, I had another task---send and receive documents. Gradually, I began to
warm them up. They would talk about their work experience, and I would talk about my
college life. At noon, I had lunch with them, and then I was arranged into a resting room. At
that time I realized that people in the government do not go home at noon, so they can
spend no time on the road. I could not help but admire the responsibility of them. In the
busiest time, I was arranged to call the leaders for meeting. I was kind of nervous because I
needed to be in the shortest possible time to inform the leaders of the place, the time and the
personnel to attend meeting. However, I did it, and I also received praise.
During my practice in the peoples government, I had been strict with myself all the
time. In the whole month, I had never been late or left early. In addition, I had always kept
the discipline in mind and finished my tasks that my director arranged for me, winning their
favorable comments. The government is an authoritative institution, and the civil servants

who work in such an authoritative organization inevitably have special rights and status.
Especially in the development of the primary stage of socialism in China, civil servants are
undoubtedly a special occupation and group. However, because of the practice in the
government, I still believe that the civil servants are kind-hearted people, and they can
restrain themselves from their own interests.
Although this time the internship did not involve my English major expertise, I gained
a lot of other knowledge and skills. In short, the practice in this month is not only the first
step for us students to contact the society, to find gap and to further understand ourselves,
but also laid a good foundation for us to step into the society in the future. What I learnt
was mostly from leaders and directors guidance. They used their practical work to show
me the principle in the relationship with others. How to communicate and get along with
others is a basic ability in our present society. Now, with the society changing rapidly, new
things and new ideas emerge in an endless stream, so another ability that we must have is to
learn quickly and have a lifelong learning attitude to absorb new knowledge and ideas. In
the future, we will face the choice of society, what we learned may be inconsistent with the
work. At that time, we should adjust our mentality and identify personal positioning, then
become faster and better adapted to the needs of the development of new jobs. Finally, Id
like to extend my sincere thanks to the Luannan County peoples government and all its
personnel and thank them for giving me this precious opportunity. I believe this period of
practice will benefit me a lot in my work in the future.