Cartoons in Chinese

As a fresh father, I of course have to keep myself informed about the issue of child development and behaviour. An excellent source of "information" I find in the cartoons of Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes. As almost anything is available in China nowadays, so is this cartoon, even translated into Chinese. Just found a nice example on this site.










Matches the time of year pretty well, I'd say.

Back on track ... Merry Christmas!

A cold caugth me! There was no way of escaping it anymore. What started as a simple throat ache, soon took over the control of my body and caused a fever which tied me to the bed ... on the first day of my holiday; such lousy timing :-(

Luckily, the fever only lasted one day, and after that, I felt better again quickly; right on time for Christmas!


So, it's time to catch up on some blogging (if time allows me, that is).
But before I do that, Ï'd like to take the opportunity to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!!!

Ring tones

I always wonder why so many people download the craziest ring tones for their mobile phones. Because usually, when the phone rings and the freshly downloaded tones catch the attention of everyone in a 15m circumference, the owner starts looking for it hastily, with a sense of shame in their movements... quite funny to observe actually :-)

Chinese vs Germans

I visited a very good seminar on Friday, about the differences between Germans (or Europeans) and Chinese @work. The trainer, a Chinese who has lived in Germany for 10 years now, focussed his lecture on 3 topics:

1. Managing people
2. Negotiations
3. Conflict management

Even though most of the issues were not new for me, some aspects and points of view did bring a new understanding of several situations I experienced. Here are some interesting points that cought my attention:

3 times China:
In China, the population can be divided into 3 groups:
1. Tradition > Age group 60+
2. Socialism > Age group 40 - 60
3. Modern > Age group 40-
Always consider which group your business partner belongs to, and adapt your communication accordingly.

Cultures:
According to the trainer, only 2 cultures exist: the one of the hand workers, and the one of the traders.
-Germany, Switzerland, and Japan are typical examples of the first one
-China is a typical example of the second one.
This partly explains why Germany produces quality products and China produces cheap products.

Kommunikation:
-Germans expect that information is pushed: if you have informtion, bring it to those that need it (proactive communication).
-Chinese expect that information is pulled: if you want information, ask for it (reactive communication).
I have heard several German colleagues in China complain about the fact that they are never informed if a deadline cannot be made, if they don't ask for it themselves. I understand this situation better now.

Negotiations:
-For Germans, only the result is what counts, not the process that leads to it. The ultimate form being the contract, which is binding for all parties.
-For Chinese, the process that leads to the result is at least as important. The contract is still often seen as a letter of intent, and can be re-negotiated if necessary.
-For Germans, negotiations should be carried out as quickly as possible
-For Chinese, negotiations should be carried out in as much time as necessary
So, always take notes of what was promised by whom during negotiations, and never loose your patience. Germans beware: anything you say, can and will be used against you at some point in time.

Of course, these points are generalised, and may not be valid in individual cases, but still, as a rough guideline, there lies some truth in them.

Going to China - not for a while yet

As I was reading the latest on China Herald I wished I could participate in the discussion on the post about the cost of living in Shanghai. Sadly though, I could only read about it.

I started this blog in the light of an almost certain opportunity to move to Fuzhou, China, for a couple of years. I reckoned it would be a good way to keep friends and family in Europe informed about our experiences.

But as it turned out, the opportunity was not as certain as I hoped (what's certain in life anyway). At the moment, it seems unlikely that the adventure will take place in the near future.

However, I will continue to look for opportunities. One day, we will be able to move closer to the Chinese side of our family, I am sure.

In the meantime, I guess I will have to write about life in Germany .... which could make interesting reading for our friends and family in China.

So, staying in Europe, or going to China, both has advantages, depending on how you look at it.

First Podcast

It has been a while since I have written something here. Used most of the spare time I had, writing for Mylène.
So I figured I had to come up with something new for this blog. Here it is: the first audio contrubition:
Click here
I used the free audio tool Audacity to record the audio file and save it in mp3 format (using the plug-in "Lame"). The software works very well and is easy to use.
The only thing that fails me still, is content ;-)