Business Language Courses Get Shanghaied

This Forbes.com article corroborates the importance of culture when doing business, something which I have writen about before. With China the next big thing coming up, many more people are learning Mandarin to try to get into the good books of the Chinese. But knowing the language isn’t everything, it’s still the intimate nuances of a country that one must grasp. I quote from the article:

Experts say the most important thing to keep in mind while learning Chinese is that fluency isn’t necessary for success. “Learning the culture is more important than speaking the language,” says professor Jane Kuo, who has been teaching business Chinese at Thunderbird since 1974. “Many Chinese business people already speak English. So learning how the Chinese conduct business has become more important than the language itself.”