Mandarin

Does anyone have input on this please. As a sell side analyst, if he can read Chinese, speak English but cannot speak Mandarin, would that be a problem for firm visit in China. Do IR people in China speak English.

Welcome back QQQBEE.

Muddahudda Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Welcome back QQQBEE. QQQBEE can’t speak Mandarin worth $hit. I read all his e-mails in Mandarin and they looked like they were written by 3rd graders. But we digress. To OP, most people in major cities speak English.

Can read chinese, but can’t speak it? that’s new. Are you sure you didn’t flip that around?

probably very tough but not prohibitive. all the banks recruiting at my mba program for the hk office want bilingual fluency.

I took Mandarin course before but it didn’t help because I have no opportunity to practice. I went to China. No one understand my Mandarin, I need body language. But my ability to read is no problem. I guess if I practice more via firm visit, it would have some help. My firm hired me forgotten to test my Mandarin speaking ability. They saw I can write Chinese, they assume I know Mandarin. I perhaps need to re-take Mandarin course again.

Wow!! They spend money on the recruitment process and forgot to check for verbal ability?? Amazing. B_C Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I took Mandarin course before but it didn’t help > because I have no opportunity to practice. I went > to China. No one understand my Mandarin, I need > body language. But my ability to read is no > problem. I guess if I practice more via firm > visit, it would have some help. > > My firm hired me forgotten to test my Mandarin > speaking ability. They saw I can write Chinese, > they assume I know Mandarin. I perhaps need to > re-take Mandarin course again.

My experience with companies in Asia in general and in China specifically is that larger firms will have someone who speaks English, either an IR person or an executive. Smaller, less well funded or organized firms often do not have anyone who speaks English (this is true even in Japan, surprisingly). It would be easy enough to hire a translator, but the fact is that there are basically three languages involved – Chiense, English, and business. It’s not that easy to have a meaningful conversation if your translator doesn’t know what capex is, for example, and it’s easy to lose confidence pretty quickly in the process. So if you are visiting companies that don’t have English speaking representatives, you really need a translator who is specifically trained for in depth finance conversations. In Japan, those can cost as much as $500-800 USD per day, but I forget how much they cost in China (cheaper but still pricey). Really, it’s just 100x better to have someone on your team that speaks the language, preferrably you.

Nobody understands your Mandarin because of your poor pronunciation. I have seen it a lot. Can you read newspapers? What is your level of reading and writing? Get a tutor, even Chinesepod, they have a tutor who calls you 10 minutes everyday, just talking on the phone. Or a real tutor, just for practicing.

Thank you both so much for your advice. My level of reading and writing compared to native mandarin is below average but good enough to read newspaper because I read it everyday. I need to read Chinese text for research purpose.

Is there a language called Chinese? Or is that expression used to refer to cantonese and mandarin?

HK/ southern China people speak cantonese, northern China people speak mandarin. Both cantonese and mandarin are Chinese languages.

You just need practice then. If short of time and money, Chinesepod.com is a solution. I think I will take that too. If you have time, get a real tutor or two, a man and a woman, preferably from Beijing, or Harbin, just to talk, at least twice a week for an hour one-on-one. You also will need pronunciation drills, recording yourself, etc.

I offer free cantonese and mandarin conversation practice to cute girls :slight_smile:

Valores Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You just need practice then. If short of time and > money, Chinesepod.com is a solution. I think I > will take that too. If you have time, get a real > tutor or two, a man and a woman, preferably from > Beijing, or Harbin, just to talk, at least twice a > week for an hour one-on-one. You also will need > pronunciation drills, recording yourself, etc. Thanks. I think I will take the ChinesePod Teacher Courses. The price looks attractive.