I speak enough Mandarin to have a conversation and get by in everyday life. However, I am not yet fluent enough to be able to use Mandarin formally i.e. writing essays. I currently work in the business processing outsourcing industry and my job is only in English, since all the relevant materials and clients are abroad. However, I am worried about my long-term job prospects in Taiwan.
Iâve worked in a few industries and never had to write an essay. Youâll probably be fine.
1 Like
I mean that there would be times when I would need to write executive summaries, etc. in Mandarin. I am not up to that level yet. (I am working to improve my Mandarin though.)
Iâve never had to write anything in any of my jobs in my entire life. Except maybe emails, but they donât do emails in Taiwan. If you can write a Line message in Chinese, Iâd say youâre good to go.
You should be more concerned about verbal communication. If you end up working at a job that uses specific industry jargon, you should definitely make an effort to learn all the common terms used.
I would have problems speaking very formally, but I do not have any problems understanding basic instructions etc.
Iâd say youâre doing better than most foreigners here.
Besides, you said you already have a job, and are only worried about long-term prospects right? Well, your Chinese will improve in the long run. Do make an effort to learn though. It wonât improve if youâre only surrounding yourself with foreigners.
I do practice my Mandarin everyday, but it is mainly outside of work since we generally only use English at work
Perhaps you can organize an âadvancedâ language exchange group. You can help Taiwanese people improve their professional English skills, and they can help you improve your professional Chinese skills.
2 Likes
I can consider doing that. Often times, the Taiwanese Iâve encountered often end up mainly using English to communicate with me 
Yeah that usually happens subconsciously and naturally as soon as theyâve determined (whether accurately or not) that their English is better than your Chinese.
You just need to remind them that you are not having a natural conversation, but are actually trying to learn. Might also need to remind them to stick to professional speech.
Maybe you can organize a discussion about a specific âadvancedâ topic, and also set aside time for normal conversation.
1 Like
the returnees i know all do makerting and editing work for companies that sell overseas. if you stay in that career path i dont think you will encounter many problems.
the key issue is that âenglish speakerâ isnt really a job description, its a skill. the key for long term career prospect is to have a âprofessionâ (e.g. engineer) or have as many skills as you can (e.g. industry knowledge, or design).
2 Likes
I think an essay is perhaps the wrong word in this sense. lets replace that with "long form text written for a professional audience ".
in my line of work i need to write presentations, executive summaries, project proposals, project plans etc. I work for a MNC, so English is our corporate language. No way could i do it in Chinese.
If I donât have to write it by hand it would probably be fine, though it would take a little longer than usual.
Iâm not sure having the ability to write long professional communication is that much of a positive though, as white collar job pay per hour really sucks especially compared to blue collar or service jobs. Iâm seeing shops and stuff offering 180-200 nt per hour and youâd barely make 10nt more per hour working white collar jobs, especially considering the amount of overtime youâre âexpectedâ to work.
White collar workers usually have fixed salaries, not hourly rate. I think if you are a salaried employee making 50K a month (which is junior to mid level management salary) you still make much more per hour compared to a shop assistant.
Nobody gets straight out of college and makes 50k, itâs more like around 30,000nt a month which is actually less than what a shop assistant makes now. Seeing how itâs èČŹä»»ć¶ itâs actually a crap deal though you probably could just spend most your working hours fooling around watching youtube videos and pretending to be busy. But honestly if thatâs the attitude one has at work, then 30,000 a month is about all they deserve.
And itâs not like thereâs no chance for promotion as a shop assistant because you could always become a supervisor or go into management. If anything if it were up to me Iâd choose to promote a shop assistant with years of experience to management because they deal with people from all walks of life all the time, and thatâs actually good training for management. Not only that, but if you got a business degree working as a shop assistant is a good stepping stone in a business career. You get to experience the front line of a business operation.
Besides the reason office job pay is so crap is because there are far too many college grads in Taiwan and none of them wants to work blue collar jobs.
Not true, it depends on the company and the position.
Our company doesnt pay extremely well, and starting salaries are 34K and up for fresh graduates.
in any case, OPs question was about his chances to advance up the ladder in Taiwan without having Chinese skills. It is possible, but not easy.
Writing professional documents is a requirement and something you will have to do as you go up the ladder, and if you work in a company that needs that done in Chinese only you will face a problem.
Chances are youâre not going to be expected to make hand written letters, and writing chinese is the hardest part of the language.
If you can type it, youâre about 80% there.
Chinese grammar is hideously simple, and very straightforward and intuitive. Basically just word order, comma placement, punctuation. No issue with subject verb agreement, verb tense, conjunctions, prepositions, and all that complicated English grammar stuff. Being able to put word on paper and recognizing the character is literally the hardest thing one can do, and if you got that, then youâre basically there.
I think the original question has more to do with what to write than if you write it by hand or on a computer. .
You can only get good at that by reading a lot, talk to a lot of people, etc.
I suggest going to a library and reading various Chinese novels, because this is how you can start understanding idioms, which is something that google translate will NEVER get right. It also allows you to take on side translation jobs.
Donât see this as a burden because as more and more businesses are done with mainland China, these idioms will only help you.
also Taiwanese companies do a lot of business with China.