English or Mandarin for Business?
Post 1 of 23
English has been accepted as the universal language in business for a long time. With massive population and increasing importance of China as a trading/commercial giant in the world, do you think Chinese/Mandarin as a language will become essential (i.e would it really matter) in order to deal more effectively with China suppliers?
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05 Aug 2007 05:17
Post 2 of 23
Well, you know what they say.
The 19th century belonged to the British
The 20th century belonged to the Americans
The 21st century belongs to CHINA!
So for two centuries, the leading superpowers spoke English. Now, they speak Mandarin.
Currently, many English speaker, particularly British, have the attitude "If they want to do business with us, they can speak English. Or we'll go somewhere else". An arrogant attitude, but quite understandable.
Soon, Chinese businesses will be able to adopt the same attitude. Speak to us in our language, or deal with someone else.
05 Aug 2007 19:27
Post 3 of 23
Replying to [smarco]:
Since Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world it is no harm at all learning it. I can't deny the possiblity of Mandarin becoming the major business language in Asia in the near future.
Singapore government whom is famous for its future prediction has use Mandarin as the first medium in their education system many years ago, no doubt, they the most successful country in the south east asia
Since Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world it is no harm at all learning it. I can't deny the possiblity of Mandarin becoming the major business language in Asia in the near future.
Singapore government whom is famous for its future prediction has use Mandarin as the first medium in their education system many years ago, no doubt, they the most successful country in the south east asia
05 Aug 2007 19:46
Post 4 of 23
Quoting from [smarco]:
English has been accepted as the universal language in business for a long time. With massive population and increasing importance of China as a trading/commercial giant in the world, do you think Chinese/Mandarin as a language will become essential (i.e would it really matter) in order to deal more effectively with China suppliers?
I was quite sure that English was used in Singapore schools?
05 Aug 2007 20:53
Post 5 of 23
Replying to [smarco]:
I think english is to have for trade if you are trading with english speaking countries.
I myself would have to learn lots of languages to deal with different sellers, and i did try to learn cambodian once, it was very, very difficult for me (my daughters friend at school is from cambodia and i wanted to learn some to talk to her mother).
It gave me a good insight on how hard it is to learn another language.
I did write a message on another thread in the 'english' forum that perhaps people could swap a few words, not just learn english words but make it a two way process.
i think it would be polite and not so hard to at least learn some basics.... even to send an email with Thanyou very much written in mandarin to a chinese buyer would show a nice turn of respect and courtesy....
I think english is to have for trade if you are trading with english speaking countries.
I myself would have to learn lots of languages to deal with different sellers, and i did try to learn cambodian once, it was very, very difficult for me (my daughters friend at school is from cambodia and i wanted to learn some to talk to her mother).
It gave me a good insight on how hard it is to learn another language.
I did write a message on another thread in the 'english' forum that perhaps people could swap a few words, not just learn english words but make it a two way process.
i think it would be polite and not so hard to at least learn some basics.... even to send an email with Thanyou very much written in mandarin to a chinese buyer would show a nice turn of respect and courtesy....
05 Aug 2007 22:18
Post 6 of 23
Replying to [smarco]:
English!..... China may have the largest population, but there are more people who speaks English than Mandarin. Moreover, making Winston Churchill to speak Mandarin while he has to deal with those Yankees is quite unfair, in my opinion. Especially those southern red-necks are pretty hard to comprehend.![[em10]](http://img.alibaba.com/images/eng/style/icon/emoticons_silly.gif)
As for Singapore, we had focused on English as the primary language and Chinese as the secondary in the past, but our "Ban all Chewing Gum" leader Senior Lee Kuan Yew had admitted that it was a mistake.
So, what am I talking about?
Changing around the universal language does not make business effective. Already, the people around the world have English as their primary or secondary language. Like Singapore, primary English speakers may come naturally to lots of Singaporean, but how many do know how to speak fluent Chinese. Not many? Including a third language like Mandarin into Europe, Africa or South America will make the business less efficient and more chaos.
In my opinion, English must stay as the un-challenged universal language.
English!..... China may have the largest population, but there are more people who speaks English than Mandarin. Moreover, making Winston Churchill to speak Mandarin while he has to deal with those Yankees is quite unfair, in my opinion. Especially those southern red-necks are pretty hard to comprehend.
As for Singapore, we had focused on English as the primary language and Chinese as the secondary in the past, but our "Ban all Chewing Gum" leader Senior Lee Kuan Yew had admitted that it was a mistake.
So, what am I talking about?
Changing around the universal language does not make business effective. Already, the people around the world have English as their primary or secondary language. Like Singapore, primary English speakers may come naturally to lots of Singaporean, but how many do know how to speak fluent Chinese. Not many? Including a third language like Mandarin into Europe, Africa or South America will make the business less efficient and more chaos.
In my opinion, English must stay as the un-challenged universal language.
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05 Aug 2007 23:46
Post 7 of 23
Replying to [smarco]:
The three big powerhouse economy's of the next decade are China, India, Russia.
India speaks English rather than all the indian sub continent dialects quite often when they spaek gujjarati or punjabi they switch between those two langauges and english to find suitable words which makes for a most amusing conversation. English has more words in its vocabulary than any other language.
Russia is learning English as they sell to Europe and USA, China speaks English, see the pattern. Oh and the largest economy in the world speaks a dialect of English. Most EU countries are multi lingual so speak at least three anguages one of which is English. The UK teaches it's population to speak French as a second language not Mandarin. Purely on geographical grounds as most Brits spend their holidays in Spain so spainish would be a better choice and the English dislike the French with a passion. Most African countires speak English or get by with French. Morre countires speak English as a secnd language than any other language due to the old colonial influence and US TV/films.
The UK would be wise to switch to Russian as a second language in schools rather than french as it covers more countries with a greater population and better trade links. So the main country that will speak mandarin is China.
As another thought Air Traffic Controllers all speak English. When the world has one universal language maybe we will communicate rather than kill each other or is that a completely different topic posting.
If you are the seller then you need to talk to the buyer in their language. Which I am guessing for most chinese businesses would be English.
So for business I think you have to choose English unless you wish to trade in China alone in which case go for Mandarin or Cantonese or whichever dialect of chinese you want to trade in.
The three big powerhouse economy's of the next decade are China, India, Russia.
India speaks English rather than all the indian sub continent dialects quite often when they spaek gujjarati or punjabi they switch between those two langauges and english to find suitable words which makes for a most amusing conversation. English has more words in its vocabulary than any other language.
Russia is learning English as they sell to Europe and USA, China speaks English, see the pattern. Oh and the largest economy in the world speaks a dialect of English. Most EU countries are multi lingual so speak at least three anguages one of which is English. The UK teaches it's population to speak French as a second language not Mandarin. Purely on geographical grounds as most Brits spend their holidays in Spain so spainish would be a better choice and the English dislike the French with a passion. Most African countires speak English or get by with French. Morre countires speak English as a secnd language than any other language due to the old colonial influence and US TV/films.
The UK would be wise to switch to Russian as a second language in schools rather than french as it covers more countries with a greater population and better trade links. So the main country that will speak mandarin is China.
As another thought Air Traffic Controllers all speak English. When the world has one universal language maybe we will communicate rather than kill each other or is that a completely different topic posting.
If you are the seller then you need to talk to the buyer in their language. Which I am guessing for most chinese businesses would be English.
So for business I think you have to choose English unless you wish to trade in China alone in which case go for Mandarin or Cantonese or whichever dialect of chinese you want to trade in.
06 Aug 2007 05:05
Post 8 of 23
Trollslayers - While French is still the most popular language to teach in British schools, that cannot remain the case forever, and already several schools have started teaching Mandarin.
I have to say that I wish you were correct though - I'm terrible at languages and am a typical Brit - "only speak English".
06 Aug 2007 19:09
Post 9 of 23
Replying to [smarco]:i hope madarin for business. supposed that all business people speake in chinese, even all in the earth speake chinese, we could communicate with eachothr easily and freely. so , for our chinese could do business without any problem wth languages.one world, one languge.
06 Aug 2007 19:23
Post 10 of 23
Replying to [smarco]:in fact, i agree with what 's you said, though i'd like all man and woman speake chinese, because it make us much easier to do internaional business.
English was, be and will be always the core of the language in the world.
English was, be and will be always the core of the language in the world.
06 Aug 2007 19:35
Post 11 of 23
Replying to [smarco]:
From experience, I would say that all large exporters in China speak English, so it;s very much acceptable as the international language of trade. The problem with this is that the large exporter is rarely the manufacturer/ producer, so it actually becomes very difficult to get the best price from this english speaking market.
If you're actually looking to deal with the producers themeselves, you will be able to get the best prices, but you will have to have a good knowledge of mandarin, as well as export law, as while they will sell you cheap, good products, they don't do delivery outside china.
So, my answer to the question would be, english is fine as long as you're willing to put up with elevated prices.
From experience, I would say that all large exporters in China speak English, so it;s very much acceptable as the international language of trade. The problem with this is that the large exporter is rarely the manufacturer/ producer, so it actually becomes very difficult to get the best price from this english speaking market.
If you're actually looking to deal with the producers themeselves, you will be able to get the best prices, but you will have to have a good knowledge of mandarin, as well as export law, as while they will sell you cheap, good products, they don't do delivery outside china.
So, my answer to the question would be, english is fine as long as you're willing to put up with elevated prices.
06 Aug 2007 23:38