Are the Chinese becoming better English speakers than Indians? This question was triggered in my mind after a conversation with a summer intern in my team. She is pursuing an undergraduate law degree in a local Chinese university.
She speaks good English, albeit with occasional grammatical mistakes, at the right pace and with an accent that is more than understandable. There are few business managers around the world who will confidently say the same thing about the Indians they have worked with, after either having offshored business processes to India or having done business with Indians. Most of the Indian workforce today probably speaks English with fewer grammatical mistakes, but there are huge question marks on their pace and accent, which makes it extremely difficult for a large percentage of the world to understand them.
Upon digging deeper, I realized something nothing short of phenomenal: the English speaking ability of Chinese students is getting better with each passing batch. This means, chances are that a student graduating from university this summer speaks better English as compared to a student who graduated last year. This of course is not true for everyone who graduates, as individual will and hard work play an important role, but the system has been designed to enable this.
This is very obvious at the work place as well. There is an almost visible disparity between the English language ability of a 27 and a 23 year old. This particular discovery assumes even more significance when you put it against the fact that in India, unless you are studying at a convent school or one of the elite public schools, it is likely that your English language ability is not even at par with people of your parent's generation.
Today, a large number of Chinese students do not just stop at English, as the one foreign language that they know. Learning French or Spanish, amongst other foreign languages, is becoming very common. More and more universities are facilitating this further by encouraging their students to go on exchange to Europe and other parts of the world.
This development, if sustained, is bound to open many more opportunities, in the manufacturing as well as the services sectors, for the next generation of Chinese entrepreneurs and business leaders. There reach will not just be limited to the English-speaking world, but can expand to other parts of Europe, Latin America and Africa.
About the author: Shantanu Bawari is Shanghai-based correspondent for Business Trends Asia. This article appeared earlier on www.businesstrendsasia.com
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Guest lecture at Rotterdam Business School
In his guest lecture at the Trade Management Asia faculty of the Rotterdam Business School, on 12 February 2010, Matthijs van den Broek outlined Asia's response to the global economic crisis.Highlighted were:
1. Asia's focus on domestic consumption
2. Accelerated emergence of new trade & investment lines; intra-Asia, Asia-Middle-East and South-South.
3. "BIC instead of BRIC"; Brazil, India and China, without the "R"of Russia.
4. Indonesia with China and India in the top-3 of Asia's best performers.
5. Added value of, and new opportunities for, European SMEs and larger companies
Matthijs van den Broek is Managing Director of Further East Consult and Editor-in-Chief of e-magazine Business Trends Asia
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Toys Not 4 Us
Toy retailers -local and international- in Indonesia and other Southeast-Asian countries like Thailand and the Philippines are struggling to stay in business. E.g. international giant Toys "R" Us tried to establish a presence in both Thailand and Indonesia but failed to make an impact.
The US toy retailer has withdrawn itself from both countries. Consumers in the expanding economies of Southeast-Asia will absorb many features of Western life. Toys for children are not among these. Several reasons lie behind this fact:- Traditional Western toys often imply an indoor lifestyle. In warm tropical countries life is traditionally outdoors and without air conditioning living indoors is uncomfortable. In countries like Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines domestic aircon use is still in its infancy with a very low penetration level. Children are used to play outdoors which does not require an access to many toys making them unfamiliar with the concept of using toys for playing.- Gift-giving to children at certain fixed occasions in the year is in most Asian countries a non-existing phenomenon.
In Thailand, an occasion like Christmas does not exist and birthdays are traditionally not celebrated. Gifts to children come mostly in the form of new clothes. When toys are given it is rarely because of a special occasion.
In Indonesia, Christmas is an official festival but mostly a religious one without the gift-giving aspect. For most Indonesians the end of Ramadan celebrated during Idul Fitri marks the most important festive occasion of the year. Normally children will receive new clothes during this period rather than toys.
Children in Southeast-Asia are now more familiar with computer games than traditional toys. As computers and computer games also hold the interest of many parents the purchase of a computer plus games has a higher preference since more family members can enjoy the product which is not the case with a childs toy.The last factor also plays an important role in Western countries where children move away from traditional toys and more into computer games.
Children in Southeast-Asia attach themselves straight into this new development without first going through the traditional phase. In Thailand, for example, this happens either at home or in computer games arcades. Mostly these are shops with a few to up to a dozen computers on which children can play games, also interactively against an hourly rate of THB 20.- (€0.42). Children (99% boys) from as young as 6 up to late teens will occupy all machines when school is out.
Traditional Western toys like miniature cars, board games and dolls hold very little attraction for most Southeast-Asian children and traditionally they are also not exposed to them. Toy retailers in these countries normally survive on a Western (expat) clientele and a small percentage of the high-middle to upper-class local population. However, increased economic development and a higher standard of living will not create a demand for Western style toys in Southeast Asia.
This article appeared earlier on www.businesstrendsasia.com
The US toy retailer has withdrawn itself from both countries. Consumers in the expanding economies of Southeast-Asia will absorb many features of Western life. Toys for children are not among these. Several reasons lie behind this fact:- Traditional Western toys often imply an indoor lifestyle. In warm tropical countries life is traditionally outdoors and without air conditioning living indoors is uncomfortable. In countries like Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines domestic aircon use is still in its infancy with a very low penetration level. Children are used to play outdoors which does not require an access to many toys making them unfamiliar with the concept of using toys for playing.- Gift-giving to children at certain fixed occasions in the year is in most Asian countries a non-existing phenomenon.
In Thailand, an occasion like Christmas does not exist and birthdays are traditionally not celebrated. Gifts to children come mostly in the form of new clothes. When toys are given it is rarely because of a special occasion.
In Indonesia, Christmas is an official festival but mostly a religious one without the gift-giving aspect. For most Indonesians the end of Ramadan celebrated during Idul Fitri marks the most important festive occasion of the year. Normally children will receive new clothes during this period rather than toys.
Children in Southeast-Asia are now more familiar with computer games than traditional toys. As computers and computer games also hold the interest of many parents the purchase of a computer plus games has a higher preference since more family members can enjoy the product which is not the case with a childs toy.The last factor also plays an important role in Western countries where children move away from traditional toys and more into computer games.
Children in Southeast-Asia attach themselves straight into this new development without first going through the traditional phase. In Thailand, for example, this happens either at home or in computer games arcades. Mostly these are shops with a few to up to a dozen computers on which children can play games, also interactively against an hourly rate of THB 20.- (€0.42). Children (99% boys) from as young as 6 up to late teens will occupy all machines when school is out.
Traditional Western toys like miniature cars, board games and dolls hold very little attraction for most Southeast-Asian children and traditionally they are also not exposed to them. Toy retailers in these countries normally survive on a Western (expat) clientele and a small percentage of the high-middle to upper-class local population. However, increased economic development and a higher standard of living will not create a demand for Western style toys in Southeast Asia.
This article appeared earlier on www.businesstrendsasia.com
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