WHEN Salome Hernandez gave this interview about her time in the city she was already in the last few weeks of her tour of duty in the Shanghai Consulate.

　　Approaching the end of her three-year term as head of the Public Affairs Department in the consulate, she has started to pack her luggage for the next step in her diplomatic career - Venezuela.

　　Looking back over her years in Shanghai, she personally feels that what she had been able to do "has made a difference in the world."

　　She, together with her staff, worked on important topics and problems, such as the trafficking of women and children, environmental and security issues and international relations.

　　"Even though what I do is very small, I hope one day that these little things will help to save children and women," she said.

　　About 24 years ago, Hernandez accidentally heard about recruitment into (the US Information Agency), which she had not heard of before and maybe the American public also didn't know much about it at that time.

　　She then took the Foreign Service exam and was recruited.

　　Hernandez has a talent for languages. Apart from Spanish and Portuguese with which she was already familiar before she entered the Foreign Service, she set out to learn two other languages - Chinese and Arabic.

　　"I wanted a world-class language and I was very happy to get China," she said.

　　In her view, China is much more exciting and women can do much more than in some Arab countries.

　　She has been sent to various parts of the world, from Honduras and Mexico to Pakistan, to Taiwan and to Guangzhou.

　　Her father is Mexican and her mother is from Texas. Hernandez said her Latino ancestry helped her to understand other cultures, especially language-wise.

　　She couldn't speak Spanish when she went to Mexico for an exchange programme during her college years, which embarrassed her, given her name and looks.

　　She decided to solve the problem and became fluent in Spanish.

　　After realizing that it was always going to be different when going to a foreign country she came to accept the differences as they are and Hernandez said she now "never feels any culture shock when going to a different country."

　　"I sometimes feel more culture shock when back home," she said.

　　Real US

　　Pursuing the USIA's slogan: "Tell the 'American story' to the world," Hernandez and her staff in the Shanghai consulate have used every possible means to achieve this goal.

　　The consulate has a data base of local scholars and students who want to engage in research on the US here. They also have Digital Video Conferences (DVC) between the two countries.

　　Hernandez believes that the "American story" is not only about policies and international relations but also covers history, society, literature and all other aspects of the country.

　　"We are always hoping to help people better understand the US. As you understand us, you understand our policy, why our policy is this way or that way, why there are different points of view," she said.

　　She thinks that one-to-one communication is the best route to understanding.

　　The Consul-General, Mr Douglas Spelman, has lectured at almost all the major Shanghai universities and those in nearby provinces.

　　The college students would say: "I saw 'American Beauty'," so I know American culture." They would tell the students Hollywood movies do not coincide with real life in the US.

　　They are often asked about differences between the US and China on human rights.

　　"The US has a different point of view on personal rights, individual rights, whereas in China looks at collective rights, what's good for the collective, such as the family. Right there we have two distinguishable points of view, a different philosophy that comes in when looking at the same thing," she said.

　　Last trip

　　Hernandez said she hopes to come back to China. "When you come here, you know how much you don't know. And people say it takes foreigners a whole lifetime to know how a Chinese thinks," she said.

　　One day, away from her diplomatic career, Hernandez wants to do volunteer work with teenagers in the States, trying to help them, especially those from racial minorities who don't have a good education. "I want to tutor them to help them to get ahead," she said.

　　For her last weeks in China, she planned a trip to neighbouring Jiangsu Province despite the SARS scare and the risk that the line of traffic at the highway checkpoints would be very long. She didn't want to miss a last chance to travel and see more of China.