Chinese: From China to New York
Monday, 18th January 2010
About 10 months ago my plane was taking off from Charles De Gaulle Airport, en route for Zhōng huá (China).
Like many people, I could have been going in order to learn Chinese, to attend to the Olympic Games, because of business needs or just to experience the Chinese culture. Yet my reason was different, it was actually to join my fiancé who was studying Business in Xi’an for a year.
It appears that he is not the only one who came up with this idea! According to the ministry of the Chinese Education 195 503 foreign students, from 188 different countries came to study in China in 2007 (+20% compared to the previous year). In 2008 the number rose to 223 500. However most of them went to Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong.
I first arrived in Beijing and after a quick tour of the capital - who could have missed to visit Tiananmen or the Forbidden City - I discovered the joys of travelling by the Chinese train and left the English speaking world to head to Xi’an, where I was about to spend a month and half.
If Beijing seemed to be quite open to the rest of the world then Xi’an appeared totally different. I wouldn’t say that people are narrow minded or racist but simply that they’ve never been exposed to any foreign cultures; the power of the Chinese government is very present in daily life and old traditions are still deep - rooted. I then quickly understood that to be able to operate confidently in China, whether your expectations are to make new friends or to establish professional relationships, you have to invest in some culture and language training. Learning Chinese is mandatory otherwise you will stay walled in forever into the small international community, if there’s one! As soon as you begin to get the language basics, a second step needs to be taken: learning how to act when you associate with Chinese people. You will have to respect some rules if you want to establish contact and, more importantly, maintain it. Here are few examples of behavior that cannot be avoided: Never refusing a cigarette if you’ve been offered one; never finishing your rice if you’re invited to a restaurant – that would mean your portion wasn’t big enough. You can spit out while eating but you cannot blow your nose – this is considered very impolite. While eating, you must hold your first stick as a pen and the second one between your middle finger and your ring finger. Never put your sticks in your rice – this represents a symbol of death.
The golden rule that you need to remember is that, with Chinese people, everything revolves around not ‘losing face’. You give and you receive, you don’t refuse, people can’t stand humiliation there, it’s the worst thing that can possibly happen to them.
The last point I’ll raise concerns business relationships. Chinese people make a point of establishing a climate of confidence. Again a businessman cannot be cheated as this would result in them ‘losing face’. Chinese businessmen would rather do business with reliable people, who are endowed with ‘quite’ satisfying skills, than having to deal with haughty, high-performing companies.
Of course learning those rules takes time, but being well prepared for your trip to China (whether it’s for leisure or for business) will stand you in very good stead..
I’m currently living in New York and have realized that the Chinese influence has crossed the border and is surprisingly strong and established here. When walking around China town, in Manhattan, you would be amazed to see how striking the resemblance with China is; people have recreated their own community and have imported the all Chinese way of living.
In the United States and Canada, Chinese is the third most spoken language right after English and Spanish. According to the American authorities 3.538 billion Chinese immigrants were living in the USA in 2007. This represents a huge community which can explain why learning Chinese, either by taking evening Chinese classes or by planning trip to China, is becoming very trendy. Moreover, in this period of economic crisis, you will always be rewarded if you can prove your ability to speak Chinese.
Let’s follow the trend…
Tags: tailor-made, part-time evening course, china, chinese, business, mandarin, beijing, general, cultural training, xi’an
Posted by Marie-Charlotte Foissy under Attitudes to Language Learning,
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Posted by Fred on 12/10 at 01:54 PM
Hi,I'm a Chinese,and think you right to some extent of what you are saying.Would like to do Language exchange,How do you think about it?Tks...