When we discovered a cabin crew bearing a name as the famous Nemo working with Air Asia, we were very curious, and hence we reached out to her for a quick online interview. Her answers were not only light heartening, but also answered the doubt that perhaps Malaysian low cost carrier Air Asia is a good choice to land the first job in the aviation line.
Q: How did you get the name “Nemo”?
Actually Nemo is given by my friends during high school time. There was a day one of my friends just randomly called me Naimo.
When it comes to work, I use Naimo as my nickname, and I don’t mind if people keep calling me Nemo. Why Naimo? I’m sure a lot of people out there curious what is the meaning of “Naimo”. I could say Naimo is just Naimo. Most of the time it becomes an ice breaking topic. Most of them will ask me why Naimo. So the topic starts, and after I joined Air Asia, when we introduce ourselves to pilots and crews, most of the time captains will jokingly address themselves as Dory. Or sometimes they will ask me, “have u found ur Dory”? Or they will say don’t get lost Nemo, we will take care of you kinda things. Sounds friendly right?
When it comes to passengers, I don’t know, they always say I look like Korean or Japanese. They will look at my name tag, look at my name and say N-a-i-mo, they drag “N-a-i”, guess it’s difficult for them to pronounce, and some of them will just pronounce as Nemo. Then when I greet them selamat datang, they will get surprise that I can speak bahasa without Japanese or Korean accents. So from there they know I’m pure Malaysian Chinese.
There was a day I cannot remember which flight, but it was back-to-back, and it was a flight to china if I am not mistaken. A same small group of male passengers were on board that flight, when they looked at my face they could recognize me, and 1 of them suddenly shouted “Nemo”! I were so embarrassed because I couldn’t recognize them. But I’m happy deeply in heart because passengers remember me.
Q: Do you enjoy your job daily now?
Yes, I enjoy my job. I love my job very much. I always remember 1 sentence, get a job u love and u’ll never have to work a day in ur life. This is true and of course sometimes I don’t feel happy with passengers, but it’s alright, I learnt from lessons and experiences.
Q: So, is it true that working with AA is plain labour, being a low cost carrier? What do you like about working with AA compared to what you know about other airlines?
I would say we have a very great big boss, Tony. He is more like our friend than a boss. He always want to listen and talk to us, he doesn’t want anyone of us to feel left out. Hmm…. I don’t know about other airlines, but I’m satisfied and feeling proud working with this big family, the world’s best low cost airline.
Written by Naimo