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Teaching Chinese to Businesspeople- Opportunity?


deremifri

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As probably a lot of China aficionados, I have the foolish thought of trying to make some money in China.

What I would like to know is the following: There already are a lot of Chinese schools abroad and especially in China. To whom do they mostly cater? Are their customers mostly young students who just wish to expand their horizon? Or do they also have demand from senior businesspeople who are required or at least encouraged by their employer to learn Chinese?

In general, would a service teaching Chinese specifically for the purposes of doing business in China have a market? What do you guys think?

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deremifri,

 

I'm a long-time member here although I don't post as much these days, but I'm involved with Popup Chinese and know a bunch of people in the education market in China, including a few that run physical schools, so figured I could comment here.

 

Not contradicting anything that tysond says above, the hardest thing for most schools is finding students. If you have a way to reach people starting a school can be a good decision, but remember that you'll be competing against a lot of Chinese companies that will have cheaper operations than you, and online advertising is expensive and difficult. This means that if you don't have an edge in reaching people, or there is nothing particularly special about your school, it is going to be very hard for you to survive.

 

As far as the business side goes, the vast majority of students are near the absolute beginner end of the spectrum, which is one reason so many Chinese teaching programs are generally awful. Because schools have to target the largest market segment to survive, the vast majority of "business Chinese" programs I have run into don't really teach business mandarin so much as conversational Chinese that might involve "office" needs. This is not really a huge problem since so much business is done in colloquial Chinese anyway and people need to know how to speak before they can do anything else, but the thing to realize is that the market is biased against specialized and advanced classes IN ALL AREAS OF INSTRUCTION unless you are really at the top-end of the market, in which case you are dealing with one-on-one instruction and even there you will have a harder marketing challenge, since you will be selling to people whose Chinese is already quite good and who will be evaluating you on your expertise and who will have heard a lot more sales pitches than they have time. So on top of getting them to know you, you'll have issues getting them to trust you too....

 

With all that said, I think there is still a lack of good physical schools. I'm not sure if this is a problem that is going to get solved in China as compared to abroad (there is casual xenophobia against foreign businesses in the education field here and it is easier and safer to run a physical school abroad), but good luck with the project if you go forward with it!

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Because schools have to target the largest market segment to survive, the vast majority of "business Chinese" programs I have run into don't really teach business mandarin so much as conversational Chinese that might involve "office" needs.

 

 

Good point. And this is why the OP might have a market. I'm only pre-intermediate, but there's a big gap waiting to be filled. The only business Chinese lessons I've ever found online are trite dialogues about office politics. 

 

I want to learn the basics of buying and selling:

 

When will the delivery come.

Is there a tarrif?

Can you send it 1st class.

There might be a delay.

How many copies do you need?

You can take them sale or return?

Just call us in two weeks.

Sorry I don't understand, my colleague can clarify that.

You can log on to the website if you have further questions.

 

I want a class doing 50 per cent daily life lessons, and 50 per cent merchant Chinese. I could nearly close a deal now even with pidgin Mandarin. I could get a solid verbal agreement, and have a Chinese colleague finalize the paperwork. 1-300 words more of specific vocabulary and I could kickstart almost any deal in my small area. 

 

I honestly think 500 words of industry specific vocab, plus 500 words of daily life words, would be invaluable to a lot of Westerners. 

 

Sure I could find these materials if I hunted around, but no-one's aggregated them... and there's your market. Some of us are focused on buying and selling physical things, not looking at how to order toner cartridges or make water cooler conversation.

 

Dan Shui

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 the hardest thing for most schools is finding students. If you have a way to reach people starting a school can be a good decision, but remember that you'll be competing against a lot of Chinese companies that will have cheaper operations than you, and online advertising is expensive and difficult.

.....

This means that if you don't have an edge in reaching people, or there is nothing particularly special about your school, it is going to be very hard for you to survive.

 

 

 

That's interesting point. I have been involved in business manly in Europe but also Japan, America and south America. When I looked at language schools in China I was surprised by real lack of knowledge and ability to sell their product to a foreigner. And essentially that's their clients. They really have no idea of their target market and nor how to sell their business. All international companies spend millions on this and work hard to understand culture of nations. I worked in a prominent investment bank and their operations in China and Japan were a disaster mainly because they didn't understand guanxi or nature of Japanese etiquette. 

 

As for some Chinese language schools, their sales pitch and approach is one of the worst I have see in all professional life. Most Chinese schools I spoke to just give you yes / no answers or on difficult questions like visas just blatantly lie or say "yes yes no problem - no guarantee" and immediately start "quickly pay, or full up". That approach would kill a business in Europe stone dead. 

 

This is where your edge will be from my limited exposure to the place. 

 

Yes, its a sweeping generalization but many foreign people and business have a distrust for Chinese enterprises and proceed with caution or do extra due diligence. Even UK government affiliated official Chinese British Business Council (who I met in a professional capacity) have specific warnings and teams to deal with this.

 

Hence its especially important if you have any Chinese orientation business to make the foreign client feel comfortable in signing up. 

 

Take for example a school like LTL (I'm not affiliated with them in any way) know how to sell to Europeans/Americans. Chinese Pod are the same, but in both cases are run setup by Westerners (I believe). As for Chinese pod, I think they haven't the greatest Chinese teaching method available, but the key point is here, I paid them, as did many others

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[ This is where you might have a good market.  I would, for example, pay money to have someone coach me on how to give presentation in Chinese.  E.g. let me present, give me feedback and vocabulary to use instead of what I used, repeat until I can recite it by memory.

This is what I used to do about 10 years ago when I was working in Beijing. I'd prepare the presentation in Chinese, then rehearse it several times with the help of a colleague, trying to improve both content and delivery based on their feedback. Rather than asking my assistant to translate correspondence from English, I'd write a first draft myself in Chinese, and then discuss word usage and phrases with her. I was an odd student though -- when it takes you four hours to do something your junior colleague can do in twenty minutes, you know something is wrong. I was effectively diverting company resources to invest in my own language skills. 
 
I think learning to write better eventually brought the highest returns, although it didn't feel that way at the time. Few foreign learners bother to do it. Yet what you learn with writing transfers very well to many high-pressure work situations, such as explaining complex ideas in a meeting or persuading people. It's not about completing couplets or showing off, but rather about developing an ear for nuances, structuring your arguments, expressing your ideas more clearly. I found getting frequent feedback on my writing (as well as reading) very helpful in making me more effective in real life business situations in China, and would encourage any advanced learner to do the same.
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With all that said, I think there is still a lack of good physical schools. I'm not sure if this is a problem that is going to get solved in China as compared to abroad (there is casual xenophobia against foreign businesses in the education field here and it is easier and safer to run a physical school abroad), but good luck with the project if you go forward with it!

 

 

 

Thank you,  travelyan for your insights. I have heard that the government has categorized the education business as restricted for foreign investment, which means that only joint ventures can open schools in China. 

In addition to that, which other hassles or problems should I expect from the officials?

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Although not completely on topic,

 

What I have noticed over the last few years is that more and more established multinationals/transnationals operating in China are shedding their foreign workforce. Roles previously occupied by the traditional 'expat' are now almost exclusively taken by locals.

 

Where I am based, a majority of the operations that I am aware of are now either staffed completely by Chinese or have one foreigner, the regional head. He still makes very good money.

 

This might partly be because of linguistic competence, partly because of failure to understand guanxi and partly an inability to acclimatise or compete with locals.

 

The other component might be the tightening up of the visa regime over the last couple of years.

 

Regarding Chinese language instruction where I am based, it is acceptable for levels up to intermediate and almost universally appalling for levels above that, ie. levels that make you functionally competent in the language in a variety of situations on a day in day out basis.

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