From giving a compliment to refusing that extra helping of food, Jocelyn Eikenburg supplies 10 practical Mandarin phrases.
From: http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/10-extraordinarily-useful-mandarin-chinese-phrases/
(Want to learn more useful Chinese phrases? Whether you're planning on moving to China to start a business, or are just planning on a vacation there, contact us at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org to find out about our customized tutoring programs, classes for adults, corporate Chinese, and new online learning program!)
You’re just as likely to hear “Ni Hao” as “Hello” in my home. After living in China for five and a half years, I returned to the US with a Chinese husband, the fluency to be a freelance Chinese translator, and a heaping rice bowl of expressions in Mandarin.
If you’re traveling to China and looking to dig your own linguistic chopsticks into Chinese culture, I recommend these 10 extraordinarily useful phrases.
1. Nǐ zhēn niú!
“You’re outstanding!”
In China, you can actually compare someone to a cow (niú) to compliment his outstanding character. Yao Ming is definitely niú, and so is anyone who scores you train tickets after they’re “sold out” or tries the baijiu liquor sold in plastic squeeze bottles in grocery stores.
2. Yìqǐ chīfàn, wǒ qǐngkè.
“Let’s go out to eat, my treat.”
In China, eating together is how people build and maintain good relationships. So if you want to make a new friend, ask a favor, or thank someone, do it as the Chinese do — over a lunch or dinner on your Chinese yuan.
Photo by vikkies
3. Méi bànfǎ, rén tàiduō.
“There’s nothing you can do, too many people.”
In a country of 1.3 billion people, it only takes a small percentage of them to wreck your trip. When my Chinese husband and I traveled to Beijing during the national holiday in October, we spent half the day slogging through a mob that stretched across Tian’anmen Square just to get into the Forbidden City. I’ve also had to stand on crowded trains because I couldn’t get a seat and, while living in Shanghai, experienced my share of being sandwiched between anonymous butts and groins on rush-hour subway cars.
4. Nǎlǐ, nǎlǐ!
“Not me!” (lit. “where, where!” — for deflecting compliments)
Confucian values — such as modesty — still run strong in China, so people don’t say “thank you” when praised about anything. The Chinese, however, assume foreigners like you do the opposite. This phrase is guaranteed to surprise your new Chinese friends and get a good smile out of them.
5. Yǒu yuán qiānlǐ lái xiānghuì.
“We have the destiny to meet across a thousand miles.”
Chinese people believe love and destiny go hand in hand – which is why my Chinese husband loves describing our relationship with this phrase. It’s best for romantic situations, and could even be a poetic pickup line.
Ceiling of Temple of Heaven and Earth. Photo by Lall
6. Wā! Zhōngguó de biànhuà hǎo dà! Zhēnshì fāntiān fùdì!
“Whoa! China is changing so much! It’s as if heaven and earth changed places!”
Shanghai’s Pudong District, with a skyline straight out of a science-fiction flick, used to be rural farmland before the 1990s. Until the 1980s, the high-rise miracle of Shenzhen was just another tiny village on the South China Sea known for fresh fish and oysters.
Every year, China races to build more bridges, buildings, high-speed train lines and subway routes, changing the landscape faster than a speeding Beijing taxi driver. This expression is great for repeat visitors to China and anyone blown away by the pace of development.
7. Zhēnde! Wǒ yìdiǎn dōu búkèqile!
“Really! I’m not being polite at all!”
Perfect for when people keep piling kung pao chicken into your bowl long after you’re full, or pouring you glass after drunken glass of baijiu — and think you’re just saying “búyào” (“I don’t want it”) to be polite.
Once, when a Chinese friend insisted I drink another round of Tsingdao, I had to repeat this phrase over and over while shielding my glass from his swinging beer bottle. Be ready to battle for your stomach and sobriety.
8. Fēi xià kǔgōngfū bùkě.
“It requires painstaking efforts.”
Some 5,000 tumultuous years of history have taught the Chinese that nothing comes easy. People usually say this when faced with any challenge, such as taking the national college entrance exams or pounding the pavement for a job.
It’s useful for climbing China’s mountains, squeezing into crowded transport, or walking into one of the noxious bathrooms at the train stations.
9. Bùhǎoyìsi, yǒushì. Yàozǒule.
“I’m sorry, I have something to do. I must go.”
Chinese people prefer to be vague about the details — which means you never have to explain why you need to leave right now. It’s ideal for uncomfortable situations of any kind. Add another “bùhǎoyìsi” at the end if you feel a little guilty for bolting.
10. Wēiwēi zhōnghuá, yuányuán liú cháng!
“China is awesome [in size], and has a long history!”
Show your love for the Middle Kingdom by praising two things that make the Chinese extra proud: their large country and nearly 5,000 years of history. Shout out this expression on the summit of Huangshan, from a watchtower on the Great Wall, or overlooking that grand vault of Terracotta Warriors.
Next time you’re in Beijing, Shanghai and beyond, see if you can use all 10 of these expressions. You would definitely be niú in my book.
Showing posts with label adult chinese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adult chinese. Show all posts
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
China's Identity Crisis?
From wsj.com
Caroline Swartz was hired as a project manager at a Chinese public-relations firm in Beijing in 2006. For the majority of the year she worked there, she was never asked to do anything except sit in meetings, quietly. She would be called in with no knowledge of what the meetings were about or even who the clients were. Afterwards, she would be told to go back to her desk.
"I was presented, always visible and on display. But I didn't have any responsibility," says Ms. Swartz, now a student in New York City. She got paid to do basically nothing because she's white, she says. The firm had both Chinese and Western clients so they wanted to look international. This business approach may not seem politically correct but it reflects a new dynamic between China and the West: Westerners, especially Caucasians are getting employment opportunities because some Chinese firms want to use them to portray an image of high status and sophistication.
The relationship between China and the West has been fraught with ambiguity since the two Opium Wars in the mid-1800s, which triggered both a nationalistic reaction against imperialism and feelings of national self-loathing and idolatry for anything Western. In the early 1900s, following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, some Chinese literati argued that China's military, economic and spiritual weakness made it an easy prey for aggressive foreigners. In order to save the nation, they said, China needed "total Westernization," rejecting traditional ideals embodied in the Confucian system and adopting European systems and values—so-called Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science.
The Chinese superiority/inferiority complex is rooted in what is known as the "one-hundred years of national humiliation," and has never resolved itself, even after Chairman Mao announced in 1949, "The Chinese people have stood up." It exists even though China has transformed itself into an economic power in the past three decades. On the one hand, China demands more respect from the West in the international arena, but it treats Westerners as superior on a personal level.
Having said that, I think these attitudes are changing among the younger generation, especially in bigger cities.
Two to three decades ago, Westerners could go to hotels, restaurants and department stores that catered to them exclusively and paid in a special currency called "foreign exchange certificates." Now at restaurants and department stores Chinese are often the ones who splurge on champagne, designer clothes and luxury cars. But even in Beijing and Shanghai it's not uncommon for anybody who works or socializes with Westerners to suffer from less favorable treatment from the service people. Some restaurants give Westerners better tables and serve them first. A friend, married to a European, has had trouble getting into her Beijing apartment complex when she forgets her security pass while the guards have never bothered to ask her husband for his pass. The truth is my friend owns the place.
Some Chinese have gone to the extremes to take advantage of the notion of Western superiority. A top Chinese executive at a multinational manufacturer in China (one with a U.S. permanent resident card) has a "white guy" business strategy: when he travels to smaller cities: He always makes sure he brings along a Caucasian employee. "The locals always treat us better when there's a white guy around," he says. The guy is often an engineer who doesn't need to open his mouth at the meetings. But his presence somehow makes things go more smoothly or, at least, makes the atmosphere friendlier.
But there's a drawback in the "white guy" strategy: when locals meet the executive and his team for the first time, their initial reaction is always that the white guy is the boss and the executive his interpreter. The executive says he doesn't mind at all as long as they get the business done.
For some white people hired for this purpose, it's not an easy situation to deal with. Ms. Swartz felt she was treated like a child and even a "zoo animal" at the firm. But she needed the job to take care of her newborn baby. She didn't start taking on any real responsibility, such as overseeing clients, until a manager overheard her speaking Mandarin. "They didn't even read my résumé," says Ms. Swartz, who studied eight years of Mandarin before moving to China. But she also believes that it's good for white people to experience racism because most people on earth have to deal with it, and "it doesn't feel good."
The European husband of my friend provided a different perspective. When I asked him what he thinks of the way the guards treat him better than his wife, he says there's nothing wrong with that. He says the guards should treat everybody like him, but that won't change until Chinese learn to treat migrant workers and poor people with more respect. I think he has a good point.
Write to Li Yuan at li.yuan@wsj.com
Caroline Swartz was hired as a project manager at a Chinese public-relations firm in Beijing in 2006. For the majority of the year she worked there, she was never asked to do anything except sit in meetings, quietly. She would be called in with no knowledge of what the meetings were about or even who the clients were. Afterwards, she would be told to go back to her desk.
"I was presented, always visible and on display. But I didn't have any responsibility," says Ms. Swartz, now a student in New York City. She got paid to do basically nothing because she's white, she says. The firm had both Chinese and Western clients so they wanted to look international. This business approach may not seem politically correct but it reflects a new dynamic between China and the West: Westerners, especially Caucasians are getting employment opportunities because some Chinese firms want to use them to portray an image of high status and sophistication.
The relationship between China and the West has been fraught with ambiguity since the two Opium Wars in the mid-1800s, which triggered both a nationalistic reaction against imperialism and feelings of national self-loathing and idolatry for anything Western. In the early 1900s, following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, some Chinese literati argued that China's military, economic and spiritual weakness made it an easy prey for aggressive foreigners. In order to save the nation, they said, China needed "total Westernization," rejecting traditional ideals embodied in the Confucian system and adopting European systems and values—so-called Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science.
The Chinese superiority/inferiority complex is rooted in what is known as the "one-hundred years of national humiliation," and has never resolved itself, even after Chairman Mao announced in 1949, "The Chinese people have stood up." It exists even though China has transformed itself into an economic power in the past three decades. On the one hand, China demands more respect from the West in the international arena, but it treats Westerners as superior on a personal level.
Having said that, I think these attitudes are changing among the younger generation, especially in bigger cities.
Two to three decades ago, Westerners could go to hotels, restaurants and department stores that catered to them exclusively and paid in a special currency called "foreign exchange certificates." Now at restaurants and department stores Chinese are often the ones who splurge on champagne, designer clothes and luxury cars. But even in Beijing and Shanghai it's not uncommon for anybody who works or socializes with Westerners to suffer from less favorable treatment from the service people. Some restaurants give Westerners better tables and serve them first. A friend, married to a European, has had trouble getting into her Beijing apartment complex when she forgets her security pass while the guards have never bothered to ask her husband for his pass. The truth is my friend owns the place.
Some Chinese have gone to the extremes to take advantage of the notion of Western superiority. A top Chinese executive at a multinational manufacturer in China (one with a U.S. permanent resident card) has a "white guy" business strategy: when he travels to smaller cities: He always makes sure he brings along a Caucasian employee. "The locals always treat us better when there's a white guy around," he says. The guy is often an engineer who doesn't need to open his mouth at the meetings. But his presence somehow makes things go more smoothly or, at least, makes the atmosphere friendlier.
But there's a drawback in the "white guy" strategy: when locals meet the executive and his team for the first time, their initial reaction is always that the white guy is the boss and the executive his interpreter. The executive says he doesn't mind at all as long as they get the business done.
For some white people hired for this purpose, it's not an easy situation to deal with. Ms. Swartz felt she was treated like a child and even a "zoo animal" at the firm. But she needed the job to take care of her newborn baby. She didn't start taking on any real responsibility, such as overseeing clients, until a manager overheard her speaking Mandarin. "They didn't even read my résumé," says Ms. Swartz, who studied eight years of Mandarin before moving to China. But she also believes that it's good for white people to experience racism because most people on earth have to deal with it, and "it doesn't feel good."
The European husband of my friend provided a different perspective. When I asked him what he thinks of the way the guards treat him better than his wife, he says there's nothing wrong with that. He says the guards should treat everybody like him, but that won't change until Chinese learn to treat migrant workers and poor people with more respect. I think he has a good point.
Write to Li Yuan at li.yuan@wsj.com
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
CLSC Ascend Deloitte Asia Pacific Networking Event, May 13, 2010, Wilton, CT
Thank you to the Ascend, Fairfield County branch, for an enlightening presentation on global economic trends yesterday, April 20, at HSBC’s offices in Westport, CT. More than 70 Asian Pacific finance professionals from throughout the area attend. We hope to see you at the next event.
CLSC and Ascend, the Pan-Asian leadership organization for finance professionals, would like to invite you to the following free networking event, presented by Deloitte, in Wilton, on May 13.
For information and to RSVP, please see below.
Presented by Deloitte WIN/Diversity Council and the Connecticut Chapter of ASCEND http://www.ascendleadership.org
Making the Numbers Memorable
Presented by Ellen Cahill,
senior consultant for the Ayers Group
As featured on NBC "Today", CNN-FN, "The Wall Street Journal" on-line, and at
various professional organizations and corporations
Thursday, May 13th, 5:30PM - 7:30PM
Can you deliver spoken messages that your listeners can remember and use in their business decisions? Can you make detailed financial data memorable and actionable?
Whatever your position, you know you need a variety of sophisticated spoken
communication skills. Polish and refresh your presentation skills and learn
practical techniques that can be rapidly assimilated to improve your delivery style
and content!
* Date and Time: Thursday, May 13th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Presentation will be followed by light cocktail reception and networking
* Location: Deloitte's Office at 10 Westport Road, Wilton, CT
* Dress Code: Business Casual
Register:
https://www.SignUp4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=20101207E
Or RSVP to:
connecticut@ascendleadership.org
Confirmation and directions will be sent a week before the event.
If you have any questions, please contact -
1. Pedro Lay, Deloitte @ 609-933-8885
2. Ashok Shenoy, RBS @ 203-570-7366
We look forward to seeing you at the event!
CLSC and Ascend, the Pan-Asian leadership organization for finance professionals, would like to invite you to the following free networking event, presented by Deloitte, in Wilton, on May 13.
For information and to RSVP, please see below.
Presented by Deloitte WIN/Diversity Council and the Connecticut Chapter of ASCEND http://www.ascendleadership.org
Making the Numbers Memorable
Presented by Ellen Cahill,
senior consultant for the Ayers Group
As featured on NBC "Today", CNN-FN, "The Wall Street Journal" on-line, and at
various professional organizations and corporations
Thursday, May 13th, 5:30PM - 7:30PM
Can you deliver spoken messages that your listeners can remember and use in their business decisions? Can you make detailed financial data memorable and actionable?
Whatever your position, you know you need a variety of sophisticated spoken
communication skills. Polish and refresh your presentation skills and learn
practical techniques that can be rapidly assimilated to improve your delivery style
and content!
* Date and Time: Thursday, May 13th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Presentation will be followed by light cocktail reception and networking
* Location: Deloitte's Office at 10 Westport Road, Wilton, CT
* Dress Code: Business Casual
Register:
https://www.SignUp4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=20101207E
Or RSVP to:
connecticut@ascendleadership.org
Confirmation and directions will be sent a week before the event.
If you have any questions, please contact -
1. Pedro Lay, Deloitte @ 609-933-8885
2. Ashok Shenoy, RBS @ 203-570-7366
We look forward to seeing you at the event!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
From the WSJ: What's in a Name: If It's 'China,' a Pick-Me-Up
If a broker says "China," do you hear "ka-ching"?
Dozens of tiny companies have gotten big stock-market boosts simply by adding the word "China" to their names. While the total dollars at stake are small, the trend is reminiscent of the Internet bubble's heyday, when a company could launch its stock price to the moon merely by tacking ".com" onto its official name.
Intelligent Investor: The Name Trap
3:48
Columnist Jason Zweig talks with Kelsey Hubbard about the significant influence that a name can have on attracting investors.
.It is also a reminder that for all too many people, investing remains like a word-association game. Stockpicking is often driven by resemblance instead of reality; a catchy name or vivid image can fill investors' heads with dreams of a bright future that mightn't be supported by the facts.
I asked Wei Wang, a finance professor at Queen's School of Business in Kingston, Ontario, to study the returns of the 82 companies that have adopted new names containing the word "China" since late 2006. The list includes 18 last year and four so far in 2010.
Prof. Wang looked at returns from 20 trading days before the announcement through 20 days after. He found that the average stock that added "China" to its name outperformed the overall market by 31 percentage points over that period. The results held up over shorter and longer periods and after Prof. Wang removed the most extreme cases.
Golden Green Enterprises Ltd., a steel producer, became China Gerui Advanced Materials Group Ltd. on Dec. 14. Over the 40 days surrounding the switch, the shares went from $5.01 to $6.88 on the Nasdaq Global Market, a 37% gain even as U.S. and Chinese stocks were generally flat.
Heath Hinegardner
.Edward Meng, China Gerui's chief financial officer, says the name switch was meant to reflect the company's "core competency, product-offering orientation and its association with Chinese companies listed in the U.S. markets." He adds: "We did get feedback from investors that they liked the new name. But it's hard to tell if the name change impacted the share-price movement."
Many China-syndrome stocks are created in reverse mergers with "shell companies." In this maneuver, a firm with a thinly traded stock, and often without viable operations, absorbs a more-marketable business whose shares mightn't have traded at all. The company is then renamed.
Consider Apogee Robotics, a company with no revenues or assets. It merged into a firm called Advanced Swine Genetics last Sept. 30, immediately renaming itself China Swine Genetics Inc.
The company didn't announce the name change until Oct. 13, however. The next day, the stock went from $8.40 to $15.60, an 86% gain. Then it collapsed. Last week, a mere 100 shares changed hands at $4.50 on the OTC Bulletin Board.
More Weekend Investor
Is It Safe to Buy Europe?
Running With Scissors: When Stock Duos Outperform Solos
Is Online Checking Worth the Hassle?
Family Value: Giving More to Both Kids and Charities
A Key Volatility Index That Says 'Buy' May Mean 'Bail'
.Executives at China Swine, which is based in Honolulu, didn't respond to requests for comment.
The rechristened "China" companies have a total market value of only about $8 billion. Most are unlisted on a major exchange, typically trading on the OTC Bulletin Board, where brokerage costs can be high. On China Swine, the "spread" between buy and sell prices (part of the cost to trade) exceeded a piggish 40% last week.
This is far from the first time that investors have fallen under the spell of greed-by-association.
In the early 1960s, many small stocks grabbed the market's attention with names evoking the promise of the Space Age, like G-W Ameritronics (a seller of truck bodies) and Techni Electronics (a maker of massage equipment). Many of the "tronics" companies went on to lose more than 90% of their value.
In 1999, Internet-obsessed traders drove Computer Literacy Inc. up by 33% in a day on word that the stock's name would change to fatbrain.com. In 1998 and 1999, the average company that added ".com" to its name outperformed other technology stocks by an average of 53 percentage points. Scads of them later went to zero.
Between 2004 and 2007, as the price of crude oil soared, companies in the U.S. and Canada that added the words "Oil" or "Petroleum" to their names got an instantaneous 8% boost to stock performance. Then they faded.
The bottom line: In the long run, cute names don't make money; only good businesses do.
Dozens of tiny companies have gotten big stock-market boosts simply by adding the word "China" to their names. While the total dollars at stake are small, the trend is reminiscent of the Internet bubble's heyday, when a company could launch its stock price to the moon merely by tacking ".com" onto its official name.
Intelligent Investor: The Name Trap
3:48
Columnist Jason Zweig talks with Kelsey Hubbard about the significant influence that a name can have on attracting investors.
.It is also a reminder that for all too many people, investing remains like a word-association game. Stockpicking is often driven by resemblance instead of reality; a catchy name or vivid image can fill investors' heads with dreams of a bright future that mightn't be supported by the facts.
I asked Wei Wang, a finance professor at Queen's School of Business in Kingston, Ontario, to study the returns of the 82 companies that have adopted new names containing the word "China" since late 2006. The list includes 18 last year and four so far in 2010.
Prof. Wang looked at returns from 20 trading days before the announcement through 20 days after. He found that the average stock that added "China" to its name outperformed the overall market by 31 percentage points over that period. The results held up over shorter and longer periods and after Prof. Wang removed the most extreme cases.
Golden Green Enterprises Ltd., a steel producer, became China Gerui Advanced Materials Group Ltd. on Dec. 14. Over the 40 days surrounding the switch, the shares went from $5.01 to $6.88 on the Nasdaq Global Market, a 37% gain even as U.S. and Chinese stocks were generally flat.
Heath Hinegardner
.Edward Meng, China Gerui's chief financial officer, says the name switch was meant to reflect the company's "core competency, product-offering orientation and its association with Chinese companies listed in the U.S. markets." He adds: "We did get feedback from investors that they liked the new name. But it's hard to tell if the name change impacted the share-price movement."
Many China-syndrome stocks are created in reverse mergers with "shell companies." In this maneuver, a firm with a thinly traded stock, and often without viable operations, absorbs a more-marketable business whose shares mightn't have traded at all. The company is then renamed.
Consider Apogee Robotics, a company with no revenues or assets. It merged into a firm called Advanced Swine Genetics last Sept. 30, immediately renaming itself China Swine Genetics Inc.
The company didn't announce the name change until Oct. 13, however. The next day, the stock went from $8.40 to $15.60, an 86% gain. Then it collapsed. Last week, a mere 100 shares changed hands at $4.50 on the OTC Bulletin Board.
More Weekend Investor
Is It Safe to Buy Europe?
Running With Scissors: When Stock Duos Outperform Solos
Is Online Checking Worth the Hassle?
Family Value: Giving More to Both Kids and Charities
A Key Volatility Index That Says 'Buy' May Mean 'Bail'
.Executives at China Swine, which is based in Honolulu, didn't respond to requests for comment.
The rechristened "China" companies have a total market value of only about $8 billion. Most are unlisted on a major exchange, typically trading on the OTC Bulletin Board, where brokerage costs can be high. On China Swine, the "spread" between buy and sell prices (part of the cost to trade) exceeded a piggish 40% last week.
This is far from the first time that investors have fallen under the spell of greed-by-association.
In the early 1960s, many small stocks grabbed the market's attention with names evoking the promise of the Space Age, like G-W Ameritronics (a seller of truck bodies) and Techni Electronics (a maker of massage equipment). Many of the "tronics" companies went on to lose more than 90% of their value.
In 1999, Internet-obsessed traders drove Computer Literacy Inc. up by 33% in a day on word that the stock's name would change to fatbrain.com. In 1998 and 1999, the average company that added ".com" to its name outperformed other technology stocks by an average of 53 percentage points. Scads of them later went to zero.
Between 2004 and 2007, as the price of crude oil soared, companies in the U.S. and Canada that added the words "Oil" or "Petroleum" to their names got an instantaneous 8% boost to stock performance. Then they faded.
The bottom line: In the long run, cute names don't make money; only good businesses do.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Culture Clash - NY Times Article on American Workers in China
Just one more reason to start learning Chinese in 2010...for more info on private tutoring, adult lessons or our Corporate program, please email us at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org.
NY Times: For American Workers in China, a Culture Clash
For American Workers in China, a Culture Clash
By HANNAH SELIGSON
December 23, 2009
As more Americans go to mainland China to take jobs, more Chinese and Americans are working side by side. These cross-cultural partnerships, while beneficial in many ways, are also highlighting tensions that expose differences in work experience, pay levels and communication.
In the last few years, a growing number of Americans in their 20s and 30s have been heading to China for employment, lured by its faster-growing economy and lower jobless rate. Their Chinese co-workers are often around the same age.
“The tight collaboration of the two countries in business and science makes the Chinese-American pairing one of the most common in the workplace in China,” said Vas Taras, a management professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a specialist in cross-cultural work group management.
But the two groups were raised differently.
The Americans have had more exposure to free-market principles. “Young Americans were brought up in a commercial environment,” said Neng Zhao, 28, a senior associate at Blue Oak Capital, a private equity firm based in Beijing. “We weren’t. So the workplace is a unique learning process for my generation.”
People in Ms. Zhao’s generation were born around or shortly after Deng Xiaoping opened up China to the West, so China has evolved from a government-regulated economy to a more free-market system in their lifetime. Therefore, they can face a steeper learning curve.
Sean Leow, 28, founder of Neocha, a social networking site based in Shanghai, says young Chinese employees often enter jobs with less hands-on preparation. They may also have less understanding of client services, he said.
In addition, he said, “I know a lot of my Chinese colleagues did not do internships in college,” in contrast to United States students.
Managers hiring workers in China appear to be paying a premium for Western experience. Foreigners tend to earn 10 to 15 percent more than their Chinese counterparts in similar positions, said Michael Norman, senior vice president at Sibson Consulting, an American firm.
That imbalance does not go unnoticed by Chinese workers. “There is definitely the perception that Americans get paid more for the same work,” said Ting Wang, 25, an associate at WildChina, a travel company based in Beijing.
The difference is a function of supply and demand, Mr. Norman said. “If you need the foreigner for their specialized knowledge of the West, companies are willing to pay a little more.”
On the other hand, Chinese workers have a deeper understanding of the influences, like Confucianism and Communism, that play a part in their country’s culture and economy.
It is imperative for Americans working in China to adjust, said Mr. Norman, who works on management and work force issues for multinational companies operating in Asia.
“In the West, there is such a premium on getting things done quickly, but when you come to work in China, you need to work on listening and being more patient and understanding of local ways of doing business,” he said.
Ming Alterman, 25, a senior account executive at Razorfish, a Shanghai-based digital media firm, is the only American among 40 employees. He says Americans need to understand the importance of building so-called guanxi (pronounced GWAN-she). The word means relationships, but has implications beyond the obligatory happy hour, occasional lunches with the boss or networking.
“In China, it’s really expected that you become friends with your boss and you go out and socialize in a way that doesn’t happen in the U.S.,” Mr. Alterman said.
The Chinese now rising in the work force were raised and educated in a system that tended to prize obedience and rote learning. Their American counterparts may have had more leeway to question authority and speak their minds. This can affect workplace communication.
When Corinne Dillon, 25, was working at a multinational company in Beijing, she noticed that her Chinese colleagues were sometimes hesitant about expressing their opinions, which she thought was rooted in views about hierarchy.
“Because foreigners are often in higher positions in companies, or even when they are not, there is sometimes an implicit respect given to them that makes Chinese people not want to directly disagree with them for fear of being perceived as impolite,” said Ms. Dillon, who is now director of sales and marketing at That’s Mandarin, a language school based in Beijing.
The difference cuts both ways. Ms. Zhao, of Blue Oak Capital, recalled her first experience working for an American at an American-run agency in Beijing. What her American boss perceived as directness left her feeling humiliated, she said. “I remember I was so embarrassed when my American boss told me he didn’t like something I was doing, right in front of me,” she said. “The Chinese way would have been much more indirect.”
Communication styles, Professor Taras said, can create workplace challenges. “Americans often perceive the Chinese as indecisive, less confident and not tough enough, whereas the Chinese may see Americans as rude or inconsiderate.”
This, he said, “can lead to conflicts and misunderstandings, but also affect promotion and task assignment choice, and ultimately performance.”
What is similar, though, is that both the Americans and the Chinese perceive a glass ceiling. “Most expats don’t speak good enough Chinese, so their promotion prospects are limited, and on a social and cultural level, young Chinese feel there are barriers that are hard to get past,” said Ziyu Wen, 28, who works with Americans in her job as a communications manager in Beijing.
Despite the tension, the Chinese-American pairing holds many economic and political benefits for both countries.
“China needs workers who understand China and the West, so they can develop a business presence and influence in overseas markets,” Mr. Norman said.
“Likewise, America needs people who truly understand the Chinese, in order to compete and cooperate.” Having Americans working alongside the Chinese in China, he said, “is one of the best ways to cultivate and internalize this understanding for the future.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/global/24chinawork.html?_r=2
NY Times: For American Workers in China, a Culture Clash
For American Workers in China, a Culture Clash
By HANNAH SELIGSON
December 23, 2009
As more Americans go to mainland China to take jobs, more Chinese and Americans are working side by side. These cross-cultural partnerships, while beneficial in many ways, are also highlighting tensions that expose differences in work experience, pay levels and communication.
In the last few years, a growing number of Americans in their 20s and 30s have been heading to China for employment, lured by its faster-growing economy and lower jobless rate. Their Chinese co-workers are often around the same age.
“The tight collaboration of the two countries in business and science makes the Chinese-American pairing one of the most common in the workplace in China,” said Vas Taras, a management professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a specialist in cross-cultural work group management.
But the two groups were raised differently.
The Americans have had more exposure to free-market principles. “Young Americans were brought up in a commercial environment,” said Neng Zhao, 28, a senior associate at Blue Oak Capital, a private equity firm based in Beijing. “We weren’t. So the workplace is a unique learning process for my generation.”
People in Ms. Zhao’s generation were born around or shortly after Deng Xiaoping opened up China to the West, so China has evolved from a government-regulated economy to a more free-market system in their lifetime. Therefore, they can face a steeper learning curve.
Sean Leow, 28, founder of Neocha, a social networking site based in Shanghai, says young Chinese employees often enter jobs with less hands-on preparation. They may also have less understanding of client services, he said.
In addition, he said, “I know a lot of my Chinese colleagues did not do internships in college,” in contrast to United States students.
Managers hiring workers in China appear to be paying a premium for Western experience. Foreigners tend to earn 10 to 15 percent more than their Chinese counterparts in similar positions, said Michael Norman, senior vice president at Sibson Consulting, an American firm.
That imbalance does not go unnoticed by Chinese workers. “There is definitely the perception that Americans get paid more for the same work,” said Ting Wang, 25, an associate at WildChina, a travel company based in Beijing.
The difference is a function of supply and demand, Mr. Norman said. “If you need the foreigner for their specialized knowledge of the West, companies are willing to pay a little more.”
On the other hand, Chinese workers have a deeper understanding of the influences, like Confucianism and Communism, that play a part in their country’s culture and economy.
It is imperative for Americans working in China to adjust, said Mr. Norman, who works on management and work force issues for multinational companies operating in Asia.
“In the West, there is such a premium on getting things done quickly, but when you come to work in China, you need to work on listening and being more patient and understanding of local ways of doing business,” he said.
Ming Alterman, 25, a senior account executive at Razorfish, a Shanghai-based digital media firm, is the only American among 40 employees. He says Americans need to understand the importance of building so-called guanxi (pronounced GWAN-she). The word means relationships, but has implications beyond the obligatory happy hour, occasional lunches with the boss or networking.
“In China, it’s really expected that you become friends with your boss and you go out and socialize in a way that doesn’t happen in the U.S.,” Mr. Alterman said.
The Chinese now rising in the work force were raised and educated in a system that tended to prize obedience and rote learning. Their American counterparts may have had more leeway to question authority and speak their minds. This can affect workplace communication.
When Corinne Dillon, 25, was working at a multinational company in Beijing, she noticed that her Chinese colleagues were sometimes hesitant about expressing their opinions, which she thought was rooted in views about hierarchy.
“Because foreigners are often in higher positions in companies, or even when they are not, there is sometimes an implicit respect given to them that makes Chinese people not want to directly disagree with them for fear of being perceived as impolite,” said Ms. Dillon, who is now director of sales and marketing at That’s Mandarin, a language school based in Beijing.
The difference cuts both ways. Ms. Zhao, of Blue Oak Capital, recalled her first experience working for an American at an American-run agency in Beijing. What her American boss perceived as directness left her feeling humiliated, she said. “I remember I was so embarrassed when my American boss told me he didn’t like something I was doing, right in front of me,” she said. “The Chinese way would have been much more indirect.”
Communication styles, Professor Taras said, can create workplace challenges. “Americans often perceive the Chinese as indecisive, less confident and not tough enough, whereas the Chinese may see Americans as rude or inconsiderate.”
This, he said, “can lead to conflicts and misunderstandings, but also affect promotion and task assignment choice, and ultimately performance.”
What is similar, though, is that both the Americans and the Chinese perceive a glass ceiling. “Most expats don’t speak good enough Chinese, so their promotion prospects are limited, and on a social and cultural level, young Chinese feel there are barriers that are hard to get past,” said Ziyu Wen, 28, who works with Americans in her job as a communications manager in Beijing.
Despite the tension, the Chinese-American pairing holds many economic and political benefits for both countries.
“China needs workers who understand China and the West, so they can develop a business presence and influence in overseas markets,” Mr. Norman said.
“Likewise, America needs people who truly understand the Chinese, in order to compete and cooperate.” Having Americans working alongside the Chinese in China, he said, “is one of the best ways to cultivate and internalize this understanding for the future.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/global/24chinawork.html?_r=2
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