work - got to learn to read

Being effective as a consultant without full Chinese language is proving tricky.  Internally, with management there is no issue.  Internally amongst peers though, I need Chinese to be able to fully participate in group discussions.  Externally with clients, there will be many clients who do not use English at all.

 

I’m helping with a sales proposal.  We have a team developing the proposal, with the team members spread across China in various offices and on various clients.  The client material and our draft sales proposal are written in Chinese.  In order to be able to contribute my part, I need to understand the client’s situation and requirements, and our team’s intention as to what and how to propose.  This process is tricky when you can’t read or communicate so well.  Sure, my colleagues are generally bilingual.  But it often makes for slow and long drawn out telephone conversations, with guessing games as to what something really means.

 

The good news is that for now I can take one of the juniors in the office and have them help me read the documents I need to read.  Their English isn’t great, but it’ll be quicker than just using a dictionary.  Other good news is that this really is a pressuring environment within which I can learn and practice Chinese.

 

More good news is that my colleague Jonathan showed me a book today, Jack Welch’s ‘Winning’.  Chinese version.  35 kuai RMB – cheap!  Actually the words inside don’t look too complicated… I can’t read whole sentences in it, but I think I can recognize sometimes 50-80% of the characters in a sentence.  It might be a good exercise to try to start.  And if not realistic, a good exercise for a few months time.