wanling

The One about Business Mandarin

Wednesday, January 06, 201010:17 PM

i never knew my Chinese was this bad.

okays at least i was able to hold a decent conversation with some participants of the Tianjin delegation that arrived yesterday.

Some of the Chinese even thought I was from China, because of my fluent Mandarin.
(though i paused for a moment before coming up with: 我现在还在实习。and also, for在南洋理工大学修读商业. i wanted to say Banking and Finance, but could not think of the translation HAHA)

But what completely stumped me was taking minutes for the business meeting.

The government officials were each giving a speech of the future plans for Tianjin Eco-city. Obviously in Mandarin.

And gosh, all i could catch was parts and parcel.

No, in fact a more appropriate term will be two worders.
All i heard was "贸易，科技，能源，繁荣，环宇 and of course 天津”.　
Oh Oh Oh maybe not just that. I know one phrase!
新加坡商业联合会
HOHOHO
maybe I am not that bad afterall.

I am seriously kidding myself.

I took so long figuring out how to write the words, or translating to English, I could only catch two words in two sentences.

Pathetic, that's what my standard of business lingo is. Whereas everyone else in the room, including Singaporeans, could understand perfectly what they were saying. It was obvious I could not push the blame to their accent. ):

Verdict? I walked over to my boss halfway through the meeting, and whispered: Must I really take minutes? I cant understand a single word at all."

):

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