Doing Business in China

Learning mandarin for business

China, having traded socialism for capitalism, is emerging as an economic power, perhaps the only one that could rival U.S. dominance in the 21st century. For a new generation of students, business people and even artists, the land of opportunity now lies in the East, not the West.

Drawn to its promise, many are seeking ways to navigate the often rough-and-tumble atmosphere of working in China. The clearest barometer of this trend is a booming appetite for learning Chinese.

Worldwide, about 40 million people are learning Mandarin, China's official spoken language and its most common dialect. Nearly 100,000 foreigners went to China to study Mandarin in 2006, more than twice the number five years earlier.

In the past many companies doing business in China used local people as interpreters but understood nothing about the country. As a result there were inevitable faux pas on the cultural level. Now most big companies want to use their own people who have both Mandarin language skills and cultural knowledge of the country.

McGregor, a former journalist who runs a business consulting firm in Beijing, advises those who want to head to China to bring an open mind, a sense of adventure and an appreciation for the absurd.

The other key to making it? Solid language skills.

"If you're going to be an entrepreneur, you need to sink into the culture," he said. "Any 20-year-old American thinking of doing business in China one day and not thinking of learning Mandarin is not thinking."