If you are invited to a dinner by your Chinese counterpart either at his or her home or in a restaurant, where do you sit?
According to the traditional Chinese culture, the host seat is the one opposite to the door. The most important guest sits to the right of the host. The second important guest sits to the left of the host.
If you would like to invite your Chinese clients or business partners to a dinner, please arrange the seats as above-mentioned practice to show your understanding of Chinese culture and respect to them.
I accompanied some foreign clients to have dinner with their Chinese counterparts. A common embarrassing moment is that nobody starts to eat. The host is too shy to remind the guest of start eating and the foreign guest is waiting for the host to start. At Chinese round-table dinner, the most senior one starts to eat first. If the host and the guest are at the same level, the guest starts to eat first.
Last week I talked with one of my American friends about a party I attended and I won a lucky draw prize. Then he asked me: “What is lucky draw?”. I was surprised that he didn’t know what lucky draw is. It’s an English word, right?:-)
I explained what it is and he said:”oh. We call this Door Prize.” I asked:”There’s no English word like lucky draw?” He said:” at least he and his friends don’t know lucky draw.”
I searched on wiki. There is no such a word either. The definition of door prize from Wiki is:
“At a party or gathering, a door prize may be awarded to one or more persons attending, via a raffle or drawing. Prizes can be small things such as pens, bookmarks, and buttons or they can be larger, more expensive, items like gift baskets, cash, tickets to concerts, and sometimes even furniture.”
Who coined lucky draw? No idea:-) So many Chinese people are using it. Next time, I will use door prize when I talk to western friends and use lucky draw when talking to Chinese friends hehe.
My answer is simple—don’t interpret itJ
But if conditions allow, I will tell the speaker that I won’t interpret the joke because it will be offensive to the listener.
Once I accompanied two American clients to inspect a factory in city G. During the lunch, the factory owner, a 50 something male who can’t speak English, ordered a black chicken, which interested my two American clients. They had never seen a black chicken before. Then the factory owner said: “Obama”. I didn’t under-stand his point and asked what? He continued: “It’s black, like Obama.” I was shocked and told him that this joke would be offensive to these two Americans so that I wouldn’t translate it. (If he was an American em-ployer, he could be accused of racial discrimination. But this is another story.) And then I just told the two Americans that the factory owner said the black chicken was very delicious.
It was a business meeting between a western apparel company R and a textile company L in Zhejiang province. Top management of both sides attended this meeting to discuss possible ways to cooperate.
The general manager of L put forward an option, but the Chairman of R said “No” and explained that was not how they worked. Then the general manger of L smiled and explained the option again, and the Chairman of R waved his hand and said “No. No”. The general manager of L repeated his option for the third time and the chairman of R was somewhat annoyed. He raised his voice and reiterated his No for one more time.
At that moment, the Chairman of R said to me with a stern face: “Did you translate my words correctly?” I was frightened and saddened by his blame. I did translate both sides’ words correctly and felt that I was wronged. But this was my first time being an interpreter and at that time I was just a fresh graduate. I dared not to rebut. I just mumbled in an extremely low voice: “I translated your words correctly, but they insisted to repeat their idea.”
After another round of reiteration of their respective positions, the meeting ended in disagreement. I walked out of the meeting room with depression and frustration. Back at home, I complained to my roommate that I was wronged by the western chairman. I said: “He didn’t understand Chinese culture. In China, no doesn’t mean a real “no”. If a person says No to you, you can always find a way to make that person say yes, especially when a businessman deals with government officials. ”Then my roommate asked: “Did you tell that chairman about this cultural difference?”
I was enlightened by my roommate’s suggestion. I should have told both sides their different cultural meanings of the “No.” I should have told the western Chairman that “No” doesn’t mean a real “No” in China. The Chinese general manager thought the Western chairman does not really mean that option is not acceptable and hoped he might either reconcile to it or offer modification to it.” And I should have also told the Chinese general manager that the western Chairman’s “No” is a real No.
The big lesson I learned from my first-time interpreting experience is that as an interpreter, one needs to interpret both the content but also the underlying cultural meaning if there might be a misunderstanding resulting from the cultural differences.