Language Lines - Newsletter

July 2007

I.  From the Editor

With the Beijing Olympics coming up in little over a month, this issue of Language Lines will focus on the Chinese language and doing business with China. We analyze both sides of the coin with a first article on the boom in Chinese language study, followed by a feature that reveals the difficulties in mastering the tongue. We also provide you with information and valuable resources about the cultural aspects of doing business in China.

The second part of the newsletter gives a quick overview of some of the most pertinent articles on the Web in the fields of language and international business. This month, you can get up to snuff on how to present overseas business plans, the globalization of the World Wide Web, and the importance of body language. And in your free time, check out PC World’s choices for the top 100 blogs on the Internet.

As always, we would be pleased to receive any comments, questions and story ideas at: editor@languagetranslation.com .

 

II.  This Month's Feature: China and Chinese - A Cultural Explosion

 

A.   Chinese Language Study on the Rise

Over a billion people speak it; millions are studying it. From India to Indiana, enthusiasm for Chinese language study is running high worldwide. Indeed, Chinese has replaced Japanese as the new foreign language of choice for motivated American students who want to open professional doors. “Once Japanese was the language most Americans thought their children should learn,” explains a May 2007 CBS News report.  “But then Japan’s economy faded.”

China’s economy doesn’t show any signs of fading soon, and over 30 million people are currently studying Mandarin, the most widely-used Chinese language. The Chinese Ministry of Education hopes to see that figure hit 100 million by 2010. To that end, it has instituted a wide-ranging program of cultural diplomacy, including the creation of “Confucius Institutes” to teach Chinese to foreigners. The plans for these new language schools are part of the largest cultural campaign ever undertaken by a non-Western nation.

Whether in Confucius Institutes or public high schools, Americans are now studying Chinese by the thousands. Yet despite the growing interest in learning Mandarin, the US faces a shortage of qualified Chinese teachers. In addition, the percentage of Americans studying Chinese remains very small compared to the number of Chinese studying America’s tongue: currently over 200 million Chinese primary and secondary students study English, whereas just 24,000 American students are studying Chinese. So while interest in Chinese learning is clearly increasing, it is perhaps a bit early to declare a “Chinese language boom” in the USA.

Related Links:

       

From the Web:

China’s hot new export – its language (CBS News)

             

More Chinese language teachers to be sent overseas (China Economic Net)

 

From Language Translation Inc.:

China reaches out to language learners

Mandarin Chinese learning on the rise in UK

 

B.  Learning Chinese: How Hard is It?

The answer is…very. The U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute includes Mandarin in its list of five “exceptionally difficult” languages for English speakers to learn. Mastering Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese and Korean can also represent a huge struggle. In fact, it takes three times longer for an English-speaker to achieve a reasonable level in Chinese than in French or Spanish. Logically, that means that in the time spent mastering Chinese, a learner could learn three European languages.

“If you could somehow make learning Chinese your 40-hours-a-week job, it would take you nearly 13 months—and forget about technological shortcuts,” writes Austin Ramsey in “Language Barriers – Is It Too Late to Try?” on Time.com. You may protest. America has produced rocket scientists and plenty of top-notch scholars. So why is Chinese Greek to us?

First, Mandarin, like most Chinese dialects, is a tonal language, in which intonation is used to distinguish words from each other. Correct tonal pronunciation is essential for intelligibility because of the vast number of words in the language that have the same phonetic structure but differ by tone.

In addition, unlike European languages, vocabulary resemblances between Chinese and English are few and far between. Learners must acquire Chinese vocabulary from scratch, and cannot rely on cognates to boost their word power.

Finally, there is no connection between written Chinese characters and spoken Chinese. Each word is represented by a separate Chinese character, which must be memorized visually without any phonetic clues.

Some aspects of Chinese, such as grammar and syntax, are not overly complex. But before embarking on a Chinese language study program, you may want to glance at Wikibook’s Chinese/Lesson One and see if you feel up to the task!

 

Related Links:

 

From the Web:

 

Language Barriers: Is It Too Late to Try? (Time.com)

Mandarin Language Profile (How-to-learn-any-language.com)

 

From Language Translation Inc.:

 

America needs Mandarin speakers – or does it?

Mandarin Chinese exceptionally hard to learn

 

C. Business in China: Cultural Differences...and Similarities

 

Translators and interpreters can help you do better business with Chinese companies. But whatever the language situation, all parties need to understand the cultural differences, as well as the similarities, between East and West.

The subject of behavioral differences between Chinese and American businesspeople is vast, and Language Translation Inc.’s first recommendation is that you do your research before you start up new business relationships with Chinese partners. The Internet abounds with handy charts and short texts to help businesspeople understand etiquette and manners abroad, and our “Related Links” section leads you to some of the best.

             

Much has been written about differences in business etiquette between our two large countries. For example, Americans shake hands whereas the Chinese shake hands and bow; Americans hand out business cards with one hand while their Chinese counterparts use both hands.

That said, as in any inter-cultural communication, do not forget to take what you read with a grain of salt. Just as it is nearly impossible to neatly sum up “the American way of doing business” in only a few lines , it can be dangerous to make wide generalizations about Chinese business culture.

Despite some differences in etiquette, values such as punctuality, reliability and relationship-building are crucial in both the USA and China. Focusing on similarities without ignoring the differences can make for smoother business deals with Chinese companies. 

Indeed, younger Chinese businesspeople are increasingly doing some of their studies in the USA, the UK, or Australia, and you may be surprised at their knowledge and use of Western business practices. On the other hand, older, more traditional managers are sometimes steeped in deeply-rooted, national attitudes and customs. In other words, the generation gap is alive and well on both sides of the Pacific!

 

Related links:

From the Web:

 

International Business Etiquette and Manners -- China

Business and Travel Etiquette in China

Cultural Differences between the Chinese and European Markets

 

 

III.  Language Links - Around the Web:

This new section will give you quick links to some of the most pertinent articles on the Web in the fields of language and international business. At work or over the weekend, stay informed on these essential topics with “Language Links.”

A.  Languages a Crucial Element in International Business

 

“20 percent of U.S. jobs are tied to international trade, a percentage expected to grow in coming years…,” writes John J. Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable association, in an article entitled “Speaking the language of globalization.” ”Given this landscape, the business community is in serious need of a workforce that can communicate in different languages and understand cultures other than our own.”

The USA has lagged behind for decades in language skills, yet the ability to speak and write in foreign tongues is increasingly in demand. Opinions differ, though, on how to get Americans up to snuff on the language front.

What are your ideas on the issue? We’d love to hear from you at editor@languagetranslation.com.

 

B.  How World-wide is the Web?

It’s called the World Wide Web, but for years the online language of choice was English. With the recent localization of major sites such as Flickr and YouTube, it is clear Internet communities are opening up to foreign languages, and corporate sites are following suit.

In “Helping the web become worldwide,” BBC news explores the development of international domain names and the translation of website content.

The article concludes with the viewpoint of Laurie Myers, a spokesperson for the GTA travel firm. GTA translates its information into 27 languages. “'This is not a matter of expanding,' emphasizes Ms Myers. 'It is just about taking care of daily business.’" We couldn’t agree more.

 

C. Advice: How to Present a Business Plan Overseas

Traveling overseas for business can be tiring and stressful, especially when the stakes are high. In a column on TheStreet.com, writer Hema Oza advises executives on how to face up to the challenge.

Among other suggestions, Oza emphasizes the importance of keeping your language simple when speaking English to foreigners, as well as watching your humor: jokes don’t always fly across cultures!

 

D. What body language do you speak?

Anyone who has traveled has likely resorted to body language at some point. Our gestures not only reflect our personality, but also our culture, and the use of body language represents a popular field of research across various disciplines.

The International Society of Gesture Studies recently met in Evanston, Illinois, uniting hundreds of scholars from four continents. Read about their findings in the article “When Words Fail, Gestures Speak Volumes” from the June 22nd Chicago Tribune.

 

E. PC World releases list of Top 100 Blogs

If you like blogs, you probably love lists. And if you don’t follow blogs, you may not know where to start. For business-oriented readers, the PC World’s “100 Blogs We Love” will give you plenty of starting blocks for exploring the blogosphere.

Happy Summer Reading!

 

For more news about languages, translation and localization, and international business, visit our news blog, updated three times a week.

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