Comments on: Spanish, or Mandarin?? http://calpolymbatrip.com/2006/china/135/ The MBA Graduate Program at Cal Poly Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:57:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: LONNIE http://calpolymbatrip.com/2006/china/135/#comment-690 LONNIE Sat, 09 Dec 2006 01:32:05 +0000 http://calpolymbatrip.com/2006/china/135/#comment-690 Last night I had one of the best times I have known since coming to China. I had dinner with four American CEOs doing biz in China. These guys collectively make millions annually from training, sourcing and other ventures.... They ALL speak Chinese and at dinner it was evident how, in their yes, language helps them achieve their golas: Three of them are single and every waitress in the restaurant wanted to serve our table... Ah, sweet fluency... Last night I had one of the best times I have known since coming to China. I had dinner with four American CEOs doing biz in China.
These guys collectively make millions annually from training, sourcing and other ventures….

They ALL speak Chinese and at dinner it was evident how, in their yes, language helps them achieve their golas: Three of them are single and every waitress in the restaurant wanted to serve our table…

Ah, sweet fluency…

]]> By: Chris Carr http://calpolymbatrip.com/2006/china/135/#comment-689 Chris Carr Fri, 08 Dec 2006 04:00:16 +0000 http://calpolymbatrip.com/2006/china/135/#comment-689 Lonnie, This is great stuff! Thanks for sharing. Chris. Lonnie,

This is great stuff! Thanks for sharing.

Chris.

]]> By: LONNIE http://calpolymbatrip.com/2006/china/135/#comment-688 LONNIE Fri, 08 Dec 2006 02:58:32 +0000 http://calpolymbatrip.com/2006/china/135/#comment-688 While a native English speaker can command 3,000 to 15,000 RMB a month in the mainland for teaching English, a bi-lingual westerner can make $500 US dollars a day for corporate work! My daughter is bi-racial and bi-lingual. We worked hard to give her the best of two cultures. Iin doing so we no doubt raised her IQ, ability to think and deal more abstractly and, best of all, to be more open to new lexicons and cultural differences. Chinese is the most beautiful written language on the planet and virtually every character has some delightful or meaningful roots in history. One example is the most common of greetings: Instead of "How are you?" they ask "Did you eat?"....A grim reminder of the Great Leap Forward and other periods of mass starvation...It sure could not hurt to learn a bit of this language. Most of my Chinese students are tri and quad-lingual...I know few Americans (we are an ethnocentric bunch once we get off the boat) who can speak more than a local dialect...We would do well to catch up... I speak Japanese, German and a bit of Cantonese and Mandarin...it WILL get better-- I hope... Mandarin, even in Canton, is spoken by 80-90% of citizens. They might have diffuclty wrtiting in Pinyin and they may charge you a bit more for products or services if you can't speak Cantonese, but you will get by.... My students can teach you all the colorful phrases you need when you visit...:-) While a native English speaker can command 3,000 to 15,000 RMB a month in the mainland for teaching English, a bi-lingual westerner can make $500 US dollars a day for corporate work!

My daughter is bi-racial and bi-lingual. We worked hard to give her the best of two cultures. Iin doing so we no doubt raised her IQ, ability to think and deal more abstractly and, best of all, to be more open to new lexicons and cultural differences.

Chinese is the most beautiful written language on the planet and virtually every character has some delightful or meaningful roots in history. One example is the most common of greetings: Instead of “How are you?” they ask “Did you eat?”….A grim reminder of the Great Leap Forward and other periods of mass starvation…It sure could not hurt to learn a bit of this language.

Most of my Chinese students are tri and quad-lingual…I know few Americans (we are an ethnocentric bunch once we get off the boat) who can speak more than a local dialect…We would do well to catch up…

I speak Japanese, German and a bit of Cantonese and Mandarin…it WILL get better– I hope…

Mandarin, even in Canton, is spoken by 80-90% of citizens. They might have diffuclty wrtiting in Pinyin and they may charge you a bit more for products or services if you can’t speak Cantonese, but you will get by….

My students can teach you all the colorful phrases you need when you visit…:-)

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