JOSÉ IGNACIO BIANCHIN’S INTERVIEW
This week we had the pleasure of interviewing Jose Ignacio Bianchin, a person from our district San Miguel, who has been living in the United Kingdom for more than 10 years. He works for American Airlines in the customer service area in one of the most important airports in the world, Heathrow. The interview was divided into two sections. In the first part, we asked him about his personal life, and in the second part we asked how the pandemic has affected his job and his daily life.
PERSONAL LIFE
At the beginning, he told us why he decided to move to England and what he had to do in order to achieve this. He studied a year abroad, in France, and he was always passionate about living abroad. Also, he appreciated the English values that he learned at the school where he attended (a bilingual institute). However, living all those years there did not totally change his mind, and he feels as Argentinian as any of us . He supports the Argentinian's football team and River Plate, he eats "dulce de leche" and he keeps in touch with his Argentinian’s friends. He loves playing tennis and cycling, but he is not able to do that due to the pandemic. We also asked how life was there. On one hand, he loves living there, he loves the people and the idea of being a melting pot between many cultures. On the other hand, he thinks English people can be less communicative and effusive than Argentinians.
HIS JOB AT AMERICAN AIRLINES
In his job, he takes care and is responsible for the ramp people and the movement of baggage. He applied twice to work there; the first one he failed, and the second one he was taken in. He also had the option to work in Milan, but he chose Heathrow because it is a bigger airport. His career is based on facing people. He loves working there but the lockdown really affected his job.
THE PANDEMIC AND THE EFFECTS IN HIS LIVE AND JOB
The pandemic really affected his normal life, and more in England, a country where the virus affected more than usual due to the political position of the government and the measures that it took. That, and the slow decisions taken, make England one of the most affected countries, the second one with more deaths in Europe. The Covid situation affected a lot of areas, and the airlines were one of them with more revenue loss The operations were reduced from more than two hundred to only ten per day, and the executives decided that one of measures to face this problem is downsizing the branches. Luckily, our interviewer is still in his position.
He told us about how preventive isolation is lived in the UK. Starting with the good acceptance of the community, the understanding as a necessary measure but at the same time not abusive, since throughout its course one hour of outings was allowed to carry out individual recreational activities. He also put emphasis at work, more specifically in remote work and how not only myths were dispelled such as that from our homes people have a low efficiency but precisely that home office can be an alternative for the companies of the future to lower costs.
Many airline companies shut down because of the economic crisis, which was a consequence of the pandemic, and the ones that are still operating, like American Airlines, are giving compulsory retirements and non-payment legal absences for a year, with the opportunity of doing something new to earn a living, and returning to the company a year later. Also, the public image and its popularity of both the president and the royal family is decreasing, due to the decisions taken and the controversy between them.
HIS ADVICES AND THE END OF THE INTERVIEW
We asked Mr. Bianchin for some advice that he could give to those who are finishing high school and do not know which career to choose. He answered that he thinks that studying is a very good thing for us as it makes our brains work, and will open our minds and connect us with things that we would never have imagined otherwise.
He also told us to choose a career that we like and to look at its contents to see if the subjects are related to us so that we can enjoy what we choose and not feel that it is something we have to do. We do not know what may happen in the future, perhaps our work will not be related to our studies, but it will fill us with joy and give us good income and that is the important thing.
Last but not least, we asked him if he still felt Argentine or not and without hesitation he told us that of course he still does and he showed us a photo of him with the Argentine flag, to show us how passionate he is for our country. He said that even though he loves English culture, he is not English. It was a very interesting, nutritive and incredible experience to interview him.
This article has been written by CONTE Pilar, BECERRA Abril, MARTÍNEZ Florencia, ARAPCHUK Benjamín, BERCHIO Micaela, GAONA Renata, LUKJANIEC Juan Manuel, ORTEGA Lautaro, SÁNCHEZ Santiago, COMAS Pedro, GARCÍA Joaquín and GONZÁLEZ Felipe.
