4 ms·
> Imagine a Chinese company operating > in the states, with an a fully imported > senior management and all "c-level" > discussions in chinese. In
by avar 9y ago
> Imagine a Chinese company operating
> in the states, with an a fully imported
> senior management and all "c-level"
> discussions in chinese.
In other words, imagine a Chinese company operating in the US the same way US multinationals operate on continental Europe.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoI’ve worked for Microsoft in China, our C suite was all Chinese (well, many Taiwanese). The nearest foreigner headed up sales for the region, was a German. Americans were common, but they were almost all Chinese or Taiwanese who naturalized. Our SVP based in Redmond was also a Chinese (In charge of all of Microsoft Research and advanced research). He would try to conduct our meetings in Chinese, and then would demure to English when a few of us foreigners walked in.
- tmalsburg2 9y agoSince when is China part of "continental Europe"?
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoIt isn’t, but since we were talking about China anyways. Note that many Microsoft employees (as in most big tech companies) even in the states aren’t American, which is already quite different from Chinese tech companies. As for Europe, my colleagues in Cambridge conducted most of their business in English and most of the management was from Europe (not necessarily the UK). We didn’t have much presence in the continent.
- loceng 9y agoUpvoted you as I don't think people should be downvoted especially for misunderstanding/misinterpreting what someone said..
- tmalsburg2 9y agoThank you. Although to be honest, I did not misunderstand OP. My comment was just a lazy (and therefore impolite) way to point out that things may be different in China compared to Europe and that OP's comment may not be a relevant response. As such my comment may actually deserve downvotes. I will try to do better in the future.
- loceng 9y agoAh, thanks for the honesty. I wish some days when commenting I had actually taken a break from HN due to the lesser quality, less thoughtful replies I'll make.
- loceng 9y agoI'm going to pretend the downvotes for the above comment was done in humour, in the irony that I misunderstood what OP meant, then getting downvoted..
- powerapple 9y agoYou don't see them as American even though they are American? How strange.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoI do of course, and said so in my comment (I referred to them as Americans who naturalized from Chinese and Taiwanese nationalities). I was just pointing out that they were all Chinese speakers and were born in China or Taiwan. Conducting business in Chinese is not a problem for them.
- timmytim 9y agoShush, you're making a valid point.
- dalbasal 9y agoEssentially, that's exactly what I meant :) Europe and the US have a very extreme history. These trade norms were established when America was either your (as a west European) your saviour from fascism and protection from Stalinism, or your occupier. They were also fabulously wealthy, successful and powerful. People have forgotten over the last 10 or 20 years, how things were until the early 90s, at least in terms of narrative perspective.
- 18pfsmt 9y agoYou think it's odd that in Europe, where the UK/Ireland play a substantial role, that meetings are conducted in English? Especially at tech companies, where US-based companies play a substantial role in the world? From my experience, English is the common denominator of languages across Europe and tech. Most tech documentation is in English. Regarding your postscript edit, there are many global participants of varying agendas working to disrupt faithful discussion of real issues and it is easy to be misconstrued, so I wouldn't take it personally.