'Lost in translation' is a phrase all too common when mainland workers and their foreign colleagues try to communicate with each other. One-third of the Chinese responding to a survey for a Shanghai-based newspaper say they know that situation well.
Comedy and convoluted explanations were predictably among the things hardest to convey, the Touchmedia-Shanghai Daily survey of workers in four mainland cities with foreign colleagues found.
'Communication styles' was the most difficult factor to adapt to when with expatriate colleagues, one-third said. Customs and cultural differences came second, (26.1 per cent), followed by 'mentality' (20.9 per cent) and 'manners' (20 per cent).
The paper quoted a secretary with a Hong Kong-based logistics company as saying she had trouble understanding a British colleague's sense of humour.
'He loves to tell jokes, but I found most of them to be not funny at all,' Kiki Liu told the paper. 'I thought it impolite if I showed no response, so every time I just laughed stiffly.'
Even so, the paper reported that 'most Chinese staff surveyed said they were happy to work alongside foreign colleagues, and were impressed by their creativity and execution of duties'.
The findings were based on 161,000 responses to a questionnaire answered on touch screens in taxis in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
