China232.com Blog

Business English is an advanced topic in itself.  A lot of business English courses are unfortunately taught at the beginner level.  If you truly want to get a good job in business, you have to know a lot of vocabulary and ideas that are quite complicated.  Most students either know business or English, but not both.  Therefore it is not a huge market, even though it is such an important one.  I have attempted to teach advanced business English on a separate website.  If you learn 100 or so new business vocabulary, you will make a very obvious improvement which could easily translate into you getting an awesome job.  Here is an article I wrote which has a link to that new podcast site:  Advanced Business English

Business English

In international business it is critical to have an advanced understanding of business English.  Most business English programs try to make a bunch of money but do not seriously try to help people understand the necessary key concepts.  The reason for this is that it is difficult to find high quality native English teachers that can explain these terms.  The average person knows very little about economics and business and therefore cannot teach the high level vocabulary that is specific to business English.  If you want to get a really good understanding of advanced language and concepts, check out my website here:

Advanced Business English Vocabulary

Business English

The key to learning business English well lies in understanding major business concepts and vocabulary.  A lot of native English speakers don’t even know this vocabulary well because it is quite specialized.  We are currently working on a business English website that will explain in detail a lot of specialized vocabulary.  Even learning 100 or so major concepts will make a huge difference in how well you can talk about business.  The more you can use these terms the better chance you have of landing a decent job.  The podcasts on our new website will be free to all VIP members of this website.  People who find the other website will have to pay separately for it.

Here is an article I wrote about  some other cool methods for learning business English vocabulary

Business English

A “critical mass” is an important term to understand. I believe it was first used in physics but it also comes up often in a business context.

A critical mass is basically the smallest amount of something you need before a major change occurs. Don’t worry, I don’t blame you if you are still confused. Here are some examples:

Think about the discussion forum of this website. I’ve been thinking about ways to make it more popular. You’ve probably noticed that people don’t post very often at the moment. Since this is true it will make a new user less likely to sign up and make a post. Why? Because they can see that there is a good chance that no one will comment on their post. If the forum was more popular, it would attract more users. The biggest problem is that we haven’t reached our “critical mass” of users yet. I’m not sure what that magic number is, but I’m sure you can imagine that once the forum reaches a certain level of popularity, then it will grow quickly by itself. If the forum remains below the critical mass, then not much will happen. A critical mass is basically the magic number that causes a major turning point.

Epidemics (major diseases that spread throughout a population) need to reach a “critical mass” before they can really spread. Scientists know that if a certain percentage of the population gets a disease (the critical mass) then the disease will spread throughout much of the population. This is why it often seems like many people catch a cold at the same time. If many other people have a cold, the more likely you are to catch it.

People in business know how important it is to have many people know about their product. The more people who know about a product the more friends they can tell about this product. This is one reason that advertising is so important. Sometimes having the best product is much less important than having a popular product in terms of making money.

Hopefully China232.com reaches a critical mass soon and everyone knows about us.

Help us reach a critical mass by telling your friends and writing in the forum.

Thanks,

Andy

Business English Phrases and idioms

The law of diminishing returns is a classic law of economics. The economics definition might be a little confusing so I’ll do my best in explaining the basic idea of it. Essentially it means that as you continue to add more of the same thing, the added benefit becomes less and less.

Here are a few real life examples which should help to clear up the meaning:

1. Imagine a student who is studying to take an easy test. Let’s assume that he can learn everything in about 10 hours of study. The first 10 hours of studying will have a much greater impact on his test score than his second 10 hours of studying. After a certain point, any extra studying will be a waste of time because he already knows the material.

2. Imagine now that you are going to clean your messy bedroom. The first hour of cleaning will make the most difference, the second hour should make less difference than the first hour, and eventually, if you continue cleaning your room, your extra time spent cleaning won’t make much difference at all because your room will already be clean.

3. How much money someone has works the same way. The first million dollars you earn makes a much bigger difference on the quality of your life than the second million dollars. After a certain point, extra money doesn’t make any difference in your lifestyle at all. In terms of lifestyle, there is not much difference between 30 billion and 60 billion dollars.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Andy

Business English

Here is an important term that you will often hear used in business, economics, and the news.

Everyone knows what the “cost” of something is. If I told you that going to a certain university as a full-time student for 4 years cost $10,000 per year, you would know that the total cost of the 4-year program is $40,000.

The opportunity cost is different. The opportunity cost also includes what else you are “giving up” by making that decision. The opportunity cost can be applied when you are making a decision between doing two or more things.

In our simple example, let’s say that you are considering doing one of two things:
a:)go to school for 4 years or
b:)not go to school and working instead.

Let’s assume that if you didn’t go to school you would be able to earn $30 000 per year during that time. That would be $120,000 that you wouldn’t have if you had instead chose to go to school. In this case we say that the opportunity cost of going to school is the $40,000 of tuition + the $120,000 that you would have earned if you chose to work instead. Therefore the opportunity cost of going to school would be $160,000. That sounds quite expensive. We could even complicate this further by including the money that you would have earned on investments during the time you were working.

Basically, the point of the opportunity cost is to help you evaluate the “real” costs of choosing one option instead of another.
It doesn’t only have to be about money either. For example, imagine that you have a girlfriend (or boyfriend) and you are deciding whether or not you will move to another country without her. You have decided that if you do move, you will break-up. That means that your girlfriend is an opportunity cost of moving because you will be losing her if you go away.

I hope this explanation was clear and you will be able to use this term confidently. Let me know if you have any questions.

Andy

Business English

Lately I’ve noticed another cultural difference that I thought I’d point out. This difference doesn’t bother me personally, but I’ve heard many people I know comment on it. This difference is regarding when and how to give other people your personal opinion. I think westerners are cautious when giving their opinions, if the opinion is negative. (Of course I am not talking about everyone, but just in general). The example comes about when I tell people about this website. I tell many people about it, both Chinese and western. The responses are quite different.

I’ve noticed that in general when I tell a westerner about this website, they say, “Oh that sounds like a good idea” or something very general. If they seem more interested they ask “How’s it going? Are you making money?” “How many people visit the site?” or “How much money was it to start?” If the person is very close to me, like a best friend or a family member, they will ask me many more questions and talk more about it. They might give me their negative opinions as well. I’m just talking about westerners who I don’t know very well, or I just met.

When I tell asian people I just met, they almost always give me their opinions, even without me asking them. It doesn’t bother me. I like it actually because it gives me ideas. Some people tell me they love the website. Some people tell me its ugly. Some people tell me it should be in other languages. Some say I should pay for advertising. Some say they believe it will be a big success. Some say they don’t think this will work because of some reason. I’ve heard hundreds of different things. I know that all of these people are trying to help me, so it doesn’t bother me. I’m used to it done this way. Its just an interesting cultural difference.

I’m sure that the westerners have many different opinions as well about the website. In my experience they seem to keep their opinions to themselves, and just ask questions. We have an expression called being a “know it all”. This is a person who always shares their opinions without anyone asking for them. In our culture this is generally seen as a bad thing. This is why we are very cautious when giving our opinions. I think that our culture says we should keep our opinions to ourselves unless someone asks us for them. Of course we don’t always do this, but I think that is what we believe we should do. If we really do have some advice for someone, we are very very sensitive about how to mention it. We often say something like, “I’m sure you know much more than me about this but I was thinking that maybe paying for advertising would be a good idea. What is your opinion about that?” We would think it is a little rude to just say, “I think you should pay for advertising. Well that’s my opinion” If someone just said that, we would feel that person thinks they really know a lot. This is especially true if you are commenting on something that you don’t really have a lot of personal experience with. If I asked a westerner who already made a very successful website, it is more likely that he or she would just give their opinion because its a topic they know about. We would see it as somewhat disrespectful if some person who doesn’t make websites just freely gave their opinions. We would wonder, “Why do they think they know more than me about this. They don’t even have any experience with this”.

So remember, I don’t really care and I love to hear comments about this website. I just want to say that in general, if you don’t want to upset anyone or sound like a “know it all” then you should be very careful before giving other people your opinions if they don’t ask for them. If you really want to share your opinion, then its better to ask a question. If you ask, “what do you think about paying for advertising?” you are showing that you respect them. This way still shows your opinion without acting like a “know it all”. A question like that is a much safer way to give your opinion. This is especially important to remember in a business environment.

Please share your thoughts. Ha ha. See, I asked for your opinions so feel free to share them.

Andy

Business English East West Cultural Differences

A lot of people all over Asia are very interested in getting a good job at a Western company. There is a lot of competition to get good jobs at these companies. Unfortunately for many people, they have no idea what is important in getting these kinds of jobs. I live in Shanghai and hear people talking about this all the time. They are so worried about their educational credits like passing CET or other well-known English tests. They are concerned that the university they went to isn’t good enough. Education and tests might be important for many of these jobs, especially if you are just sending in a resume. However, there are many other things that may be even more important that are often overlooked. For example, when a westerner chooses a suitable person for a job, they are looking for someone they can trust, who they can communicate with without major problems, a person they believe is capable of learning new things, and a person who is capable of dealing with things and thinking about things in a Western way. When they interview or talk to a person, they are already judging what kind of person they are, how good their English level is, and if they think you can understand their way of thinking. For example, when I talk to someone, I will automatically evaluate their English level and communication skill. I really don’t care what tests you have or haven’t passed. I know what your English level is from talking to you. It doesn’t matter what tests you say you have. I also will evaluate how capable I think you would be working in a western environment based on our conversation, not based on which university you went to or anything else.

Building trust is a hugely important thing, especially when dealing with different cultures. The boss needs to trust his or her employees. There are so many differences in Western and Eastern cultures. In Western culture, it’s extremely important to admit your mistakes. It’s normal to make some mistakes when you are working. The boss wants to see that you will learn from the mistake and won’t make it again in the future. If you don’t admit the mistake, or make excuses, the boss will see you as a liar, or a person who doesn’t understand why it was a mistake. They will be afraid you will hide other things or make the same mistake in the future. You must apologize for your mistakes and work on correcting them. Making a mistake is not a big deal. On the other hand, hiding a mistake is a huge deal.

I come across this all time in my daily life in China. Yesterday I went to buy a DVD. I called the store first to see if they had the DVD and they said they did. Then when I got there they didn’t have it. The woman in the store wasn’t the person I spoke with on the phone so she didn’t really know what happened. I told her my story about calling for the DVD and how the person said they had it. She told me “impossible”. She said that maybe I didn’t speak clearly on the phone. Or maybe I didn’t say the name of the movie clearly. This is interesting because of course she doesn’t know the truth. She wasn’t on the phone with me. She was only guessing. I am 100% sure that I said the name of the movie clearly. I think that the person on the phone didn’t really check to see if they had it and just thought they did. Basically this woman tried to make me feel that it was my mistake and not the mistake of the store. In western culture, this woman should have apologized to me on behalf of the store. She should have said something like, “Oh, I’m so sorry you had to come all the way down here for this. Please give me your phone number and I’ll call you as soon as the movie comes in. I’ll make sure this won’t happen again. Again, I’m really sorry about this.” Instead, the woman tried to make me feel it was my fault. This made me even angrier than them not having the movie. I would have been ok with an apology. Instead I decided I would never go to that store again. This is the way of thinking of Western culture in this situation.

I’ll try to think of some more examples and situations for how Westerners think and would handle a situation. The better you are at understanding this, the more job opportunities you will have.
Please share your comments.

Andrew

Business English East West Cultural Differences

Almost everything a company will ever do is because they think it will in some way help to increase profit. Companies often relocate to a place where the cost of labor is cheaper. This is especially true of companies that have a lot of relatively low-skilled jobs. Certain companies may wish to relocate to an area where there is a higher talent pool of workers. Internet companies for example often move to Silicon Valley in California because of a relatively high number of people living there with appropriate skills to fill such positions. Some companies move to save costs on real estate or other costs such as hydro. Some move because of logistical reasons like they want to be closer to their suppliers to save on transportation costs. Some might move to a different country because they believe the government regulations there are more favorable to their particular business. I.e. the tax rate might be lower, the environmental laws may be more lax, or the worker’s rights may not be so strong. Some companies relocate to be near other companies in the same industry. This phenomenon is called clustering. Whatever the case, there are certainly many reasons a company may relocate, but basically it all comes down to profit.