Try to enroll in Mandarin classes before you go (Mandarin Chinese is the default language in almost every part of China), or try to teach yourself some of the basics -- the BBC website has a decent introduction to learning Chinese.
For this reason, Britons at home never need to use Mandarin in their dealings with Chinese firms.
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Having studied for five years under top Chinese professors, he now co-writes learned papers on Eastern medicine in Mandarin, drawing on a deep knowledge of ancient Chinese philosophy and cosmology.
Cheng, who had the suits for his wedding in the Maldives made here last year, looks totally at home, chatting to the tailors in Cantonese (though, unlike many Hong Kong Chinese, Cheng is also fluent in Mandarin).
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Horrocks earned his PhD in Chinese Economic History from Leeds University in the United Kingdom, and is fluent in Mandarin.
And at a seminar in Mandarin in July, Tang reportedly noted that 80% of Chinese Singaporeans speak Mandarin.
Li, who turns 31 next month and will rise one place to No. 5 in the Women's Tennis Association rankings on Monday, joked that she felt like she was at the China Open, because of the number of Chinese flags and cheers, both in Mandarin and English at the arena.
Ms. Li, who turns 31 next month and will rise one place to No. 5 in the Women's Tennis Association rankings on Monday, joked that she felt like she was at the China Open, because of the number of Chinese flags and cheers, both in Mandarin and English at the arena.
An English, Mandarin and Cantonese speaker, Ng says a certain finesse is required in dealing with Chinese management teams, which culturally and linguistically tend toward innuendo instead of direct talk.
Employing first Chinese graduates of these colleges as liaison staff (and later Mandarin-speaking African college graduates), multinationals should sponsor Chinese faculty research in key areas like petroleum engineering, manufacturing operations and international commerce, and seek out talented students from Angola, Zambia, Congo and Sudan.
Neo's character, an unpolished Chinese-educated executive, speaks Mandarin with his wife, inadequate English in the office and Hokkien with his coffee-shop buddies.
Synaptics' chief scientist, Shawn Day, is close to releasing a phone finger touchpad for writing Mandarin characters--an easier way to key in a mobile text message (the Chinese send millions of them every day).
His wife, Millie Chu-Baird, is Chinese-American but can't read or write Mandarin, having grown up in Columbus, Ind.
But one novel strategy has been adopted by rival SM Entertainment, which is trying to make inroads into the Chinese market with Exo -- a boy band that performs their songs in Mandarin as well as Korean.
The institution has launched an undergraduate degree in Linguistics with Chinese and all students at Lancaster University are offered the chance to study Mandarin and the university offers Chinese cultural courses to local schools and businesses.
They advanced much more quickly than if they had tried to climb the career ladder in the U.S. One young woman who works in financial services is already doing deals with senior Chinese executives even though she doesn't speak Mandarin.
Her father is of Chinese ethnicity (so she has a Chinese name), she has a law degree from the private Aoyama Gakuin University and has studied Mandarin in Beijing.
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