I’m learning to speak Chinese - slowly.

In the weeks leading up to Leehom’s tour, I spent hours and hours listening to my Chinese language lessons on my iPod while I worked in my yard.  I practiced out loud:

“Neeeeeeeee Hooowww…Neeiii Haaowwwoo….Niii Howwaaoooo…”

My two boys laughed at and imitated me - “Ni hao!  Ni hao! Ni hao!”  And my neighbors wondered why I was talking to myself every time I mowed my lawn.

So now that I’m finally in China, I’m trying to speak Chinese every chance I get.  And I’m working on understanding the Mandarin that is spoken to me in conversation.

But, oddly, I’m finding it hard to improve my Chinese in China.

The problem I’m having is that Chinese people are obviously just as interested in speaking English to me as I am interested in speaking Chinese to them!  So, almost every time I tell a cashier “Xiè xie” (”thank you”), they reply in English, “You’re welcome,” instead of with the Chinese, “bú kèqi.”

Taxi cab ad for English education

And when I ask, “Duoshao qian?”  (”How much does it cost?”), the store worker almost replies, “That’s two hundred yuan, sir”  And in all cases we both smile approvingly at our command of one another’s language.

Yes, it is great and touching that we’re all making an effort to communicate in one another’s language.  Hurray!

BUT after exchanges like this, I’m always disappointed, because I have FAILED to have a complete Chinese conversation!

A similar thing is happening in our business meetings here with agencies and directors.  Even though my Client Services Coordinator - who speaks perfect Mandarin - is present at all of our screenings in China, our counterparts here prefer to speak English with native English-speakers, even if it’s a struggle for them.

I witnessed this elsewhere.  Last week I overheard more than a couple conversations in which a Chinese person was speaking a Western language to a Westerner replying in Mandarin.  Both seemed perfectly happy to communicate this way.

But not me.  Because while I try hard to improve my Chinese comprehension, my effort is continually stifled by Chinese people who are all too happy to have an opportunity to practice their English with an American.  Good for them.  Bad for me!

Next to a newspaper I can't yet read

However as frustrating as this may be, the simple truth is we now live in a multilingual world - especially outside the United States.  And in China, this seems especially so.  It’s so clear to me that China’s unfathomable growth is fueled in no small part by its citizens’ curiosity about, and commitment to learning, foreign languages and foreign customs.

As an American doing business in China, this is inspiring.  Because while the rest of the world has worked hard to learn English, Americans themselves have gotten lazy about learning other languages.  To me this is incredibly sad, since understanding one another’s language is key to understanding one another, and therefore for understanding more about ourselves.

I, as much as anyone who is developing business relationships in China, am excited about the huge opportunity that country offers to make money and to grow my company.  But an even greater motivation than money for me is the opportunity China offers to learn more about a country and a culture that developed very differently than my own.  What could be more exciting than that?!   Learning Chinese is, of course, critical if I’m going to dive very deeply.

Languages are not equivalent.  Each one offers unique windows into the fundamental motivations and emotions that make us all human beings.  In this way each language has its strengths.  Each its deficiencies.  The Chinese people I have met understand that the more they understand English, the better off they’ll be in doing business with Americans.  Why?  Because by learning English, they better understand what makes us tick!

As China quickly becomes a dominant economic power, Americans would be really stupid not to follow China’s lead and learn Mandarin…even if they sometimes get frustrated that the Chinese people they speak with insist on conversing in English.