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China As Though Language Matters

By Dan Harris on Posted in China Business

Interesting post on the China Business Leadership blog, entitled, “China — The Language Barrier,” regarding how language can play out in China employment situations.

The post talks of a manager who insisted on speaking English to his Chinese staff even though many did not understand him. It then talks of the pros and cons of having “a global [company] culture centered around English”:  

I know some companies want to have a global culture centered around English. I love the idea of having a global culture. Language will help, but do not forget the cost. I know one Research and Design Center in Shanghai where they employ a full time American English teacher. That is a good idea considering their requirement that top managers all speak English. However, it does mean that they are dramatically limiting their pool of workers. And high level R&D workers are not plentiful anyway. So they are more chronically short of workers. I personally would choose a global culture built around certain values as opposed to skills like English in most cases. But I think each company must carefully choose how many and which must haves they want to name.

The post then discusses the importance of using good translators, a point I have often made on this blog. For example, in the post, “How To Choose The Right Chinese Interpreter. Tell Me Who Do You Love,” I note that others will view you as they view your interpreter, so you had better choose wisely. China Business Leadership too stresses the importance of those who are going to convey your message:

Your translators are critical. You need a translator or translators that can do more than a word for word translation of what you are saying or writing. You need someone who can translate the heart of what you are saying in a culturally contextualized way. That is a lot to ask of a translator. We would vet and background check them at least as deep as we do senior managers.

So true. Many years ago, I was interviewed as part of a study on how international law firms use interpreters and translators. I was asked how we chose our interpreters and translators and I said that in almost all cases, we used only our own lawyers and paralegals because we know and trust them. The interviewer then asked me if those requirements have stunted my firm’s growth and I replied that it had, but that it was worth it because it guaranteed quality.

Do you require all of your China employees speak English? Does this reduce the overall quality of your work-force and/or increase the costs? Do you hire in-house translators/interpreters? How do you decide who to use to translate/interpret for you?

  • http://www.atempo.com Kevin

    Hi Dan:
    Interesting post. I also read the post on China Leadership Blog.
    1. I do not require my staff in China to speak English. While I am proficient in Mandarin, I do have a fluent English speaker on staff and my administrative speaker has a Level 4 capability (conversational). Having said this, there are times when a rrequirement exists to interface our home office in the U.S. whereby English is obviously helpful. To be honest, I don’t think this is much of an issue. Overy the last 10 years almost every Chinese person that has graduated from anything has at least been exposed to English. University graduates are generally reasonabily conversational in English albiet they usually understand far more than they can speak. Every candidate I have interviewed over the last 3 years with a university degree has at least some competency in English.
    2. I honestly don’t think this has had any iimpact on the quality of our China workforce and hasn’t increased our costs. I once offered to reimburse costs associated with English lessons and not a single person on my staff took me up on the offer. Most of he people refreshed their English by themselves considering the importance of English in working for a western company.
    3. We only hire outside interpreters for outside events (press events, generally). We hire a technical interpreter made available through MIIT who does an excellent job providing a suitable person for the task. We interview that person first io insure they can effectively translate what we say if we are presenting in English. We never use an interpreter in customer situations for the following reasons: 1) I always keep one bi-lingual person (not a professional translator but an employee with senior level responsibilities) on staff, 2) In almost every case, when visiting a C level executive, he/she will have a bi-lingual person in attendence if, for no other reason, courtesy.
    Here in Beijing, I am frequently involved in conversations with my ex-pat friends regading the necessity to learn Mandarin because so many professional people can speak English. Many have been extremely successful with only a basic knowledge of Mandarin. Some learn Mandarin more from the cultural commitment than from a professonal perspective.
    Your references blog entry also makes note of the language “issues” in more “remote” locations. Frankly, it is a lot better now than it was 10 years ago. In Sichuan Province, for example, finding English capabile employees is no problem.
    Regards,
    Kevin

  • http://wangbo.blogtown.co.nz Chris Waugh

    Dan, what you and Kevin say about translators/interpreters is absolutely correct. In your case I assume the translation in question is usually of legal documents, in which case a translator familiar with the legal jargon of both languages is going to do a much better, more accurate job than, well, a non-lawyer like me. Kevin’s comments suggest his translations also have a strong technical component, which would also require technical expertise to match the linguistic ability for the same reason.
    I must say I am always very, very suspicious of those who claim there is no need to learn Mandarin. Sure, it is possible to do very well here without learning Mandarin, but how much better would those people be able to do if they put some effort into learning the language? And no, it is not limited to Kevin’s “cultural commitment”. At the very least, how are you supposed to measure the competence of your translators if you know nothing of the language? Blind faith? “Obtaining the desired result” is certainly not a good metric, as there are so many other factors that could prevent you from obtaining that result that you may well end up dumping good translators and keeping hopeless ones.
    And having “bilingual staff” doesn’t quite cut it. First, I would hope they include both bilingual Chinese and bilingual others, as your Chinese staff are quite likely not the best placed to be translating into English. Quite simply, one always has a greater command of accuracy and nuance in one’s native language than in any second language. More than a few times I could’ve caused a world of trouble for my boss by swinging the translation a harsher way than was necessarily intended, and a Chinese person isn’t necessarily going to understand these subtleties in English as well as a native speaker. Obviously, it works the other way, too. Not to mention that simply being bilingual is not enough to make one even a halfway decent translator.
    And surely the greater your understanding of Chinese culture and society, the more successful you will be here? A knowledge of Mandarin is not necessary for that, of course, but based on my numerous very frustrating experiences with monolingual foreigners, people with the necessary skills to come to understand another culture and society without learning the language are very few on the ground indeed. Most monolinguals and a surprising number of bilinguals are stuck at a very superficial understanding of the society they are in. Others may disagree, but I don’t see how you can trust the running of your China business to people whose understanding of China is only marginally greater than what you can find in Lonely Planet and who rely on their bilingual staff for tasks as basic as paying their power bills and giving directions to their ayi (and yes, I have met such people).
    To put it another way: I most certainly would not trust somebody who was monolingual in Mandarin to tell me how to do business in New Zealand.
    I would also say that the days of the easy ride for foreigners are only just starting to come to an end. From here on out, linguistic and cultural skills are going to become ever more important for your success here. Neglect such skills at your peril.

  • http://www.allroadsleadtochina.com allroads

    There are plenty of firms/ expats that are not here to penetrate China on any level once they have an entry stamp, and then there are those firms who are developing local only products… and between those extremes will lie variance in the need for expats/ employees to speak Chinese.
    In my experience, and within my largest group, I look for fluent English for all Chinese employees and fluent Chinese for all halfpats, and the reasons for doing so are quite simple. I want my local employees to be able to gain exposure to the international platforms that we are integrated with, and I want my halfpats to be able to dive deep into the local infrastructures that we are building.
    With regard to the other question – my personal beliefs on the need to be able to speak Chinese is mixed. I would never tell a FOB that their Chinese needs to be at CCTV level quality, but they need to have a very healthy respect for the gaps that exist in their skills and never put themselves in a position where they are acting like they understand. That is where it can get dangerous, and it is why I always have staff with me for important meetings where I know technical language will be involved.
    My thoughts on interpreters.. I only use my staff, and I only use staff who know me well. I will conduct meetings where I speak only the first few minutes in Chinese, and then I will move to English and have my staff translate everything … even if I understand 95%… because it is the 5% that is the most important, and in the spirit of process, I find meetings go a lot more smoothly if my extra is translating 100% vs. my interrupting the meeting for the 5%.
    R

  • William

    Kevin makes a useful point. There are two different situations here: bilateral (one company talks to another – and it may become an ongoing discussion over several meetings, perhaps over years), and multilateral (press events, conferences, and anything else with people from several different organisations). They’re both important.
    With bilateral situations, you’d ideally want the same person interpreting for you every time. This is much easier if they’re on your staff. This can also ensure they’re perfectly familiar with all the background, even if they’re not perfect in catching all your nuances sometimes.
    With multilateral situations, you’re not going to see the same journalists / conference participants / academics / government officials every time, and they tend to be larger-scale events anyway. In these cases it’s worth hiring professional, freelance interpreters. Yes, it costs a bit, but it’s worth it. Yes, trust and neutrality are issues, so you need to find someone who’s genuinely professional (preferably trained at a CIUTI-recognised place) and respects interpreter ethics, including confidentiality. Find more interpreters through one that you or others trust and respect, or look at the members of AIIC based locally. AIIC is very hard to get into as it’s all about interpreters certifying each other.
    And whoever they are, remember: if their interpreting sounds good to you, that doesn’t mean they’re good – they could just be making it up!

  • http://www.translationguy.net Ken Clark

    Dan
    Those of us in the translation profession consider translation, well, a profession. Use of bilingual staff resources can’t be beat if they’ve been properly briefed, and if their translation skills have been validated in accordance with translation industry best practice. And I’m not talking bilingual, skills. So when it comes to using internal resources, I’d recommend the same diligence required when hiring outside linguists. Qualify, and check. “Trust but verify” translates very well in any language.
    Great post, thanks for raising this mission-critical issue.
    -Ken

  • Glen

    “we used only our own lawyers and paralegals because we know and trust them”
    This means your billable hours are going to translation/interpretation tasks instead of work that lawyers and paralegals are specifically trained to do. What does your firm do if you need a 50 page deposition translated in 24 hours? This is a rather glaring inefficiency. I have said this before and I will say it again, a professional and experienced translator or interpreter will, hands down, be cheaper and BETTER than your staff at these tasks. My colleagues and professors from the Monterey Institute of International Studies regularly interpret for heads of state. Therefore, a contract negotiation for HID lighting ballast produced in Zhanjiang is well within their abilities.
    I’m trying to get my head around this concept of “trust” that I keep seeing mentioned in terms of using one’s own employees vs. outside language professionals. Haven’t we read post after post where “trust” can backfire in the China business context, particularly if they are your own employees? Translators and interpreters are bound by contracts and NDAs in addition to a code of professional ethics. That legal framework makes language services no more risky than the provision of any other business service. One of the things I have come to appreciate about this blog is that it shows how proper knowledge and use of legal tools can protect your business and allow it to prosper. Outside language services are no different.
    -Glen

  • James Wu

    This post is interesting on a few levels. For those who contend that they can do really well here without speaking the language is smoking something. When your business is centered around the Chinese consumer( I am assuming) and your clients and the vast majority of your business and government contacts are Chinese, then the ability to speak and EFFECTIVELY communicate with these parties is absolutely crucial. You cannot possibly force your employees to speak a language other than their native one unless the job position calls specifically for it. Like a poster above has stated, most work-eligible local employees will already have a basic understanding of, if not a conversational level, the english language. On another level, I can assure you that you will lose credibility and just plain respect if you live and run a business here and don’t speak the language and/or bother to learn. It’s a slap in the face to the locals and a clear sign you don’t take them seriously, both as a viable business epicenter and as a people/culture. Trust me, no matter how polite they are to your face, they will ridicule you if you are one of the few dumb ones to completely shun the language and culture. I would think this would be common sense for anyone with half a brain but apparently not.

  • Anna P.

    Very interesting post! Thanks a lot!
    Yes, it’s good and necessary to be bilingual in the modern world, because it shows that a company is globally-oriented, but on the other hand, language is not only a mean of communication but also a kind of respect to the country where you are residing.