F2F Class Notes (Vicki)

I’ve been in Shanghai for more than 5 years. As a salesperson, I have to participate in some business dinners with clients, original manufactures or agents. I totally don’t understand the “Alcohol business” culture here. People like to talk about business with alcohol. They’re not going to sign the contract seriously in the present, but they usually make some decisive decisions in the period of dinner time, like a company might promise to cooperate with the vendor, even more they will discuss about the final prices. It’s all fine, however, the reason that it bothers me is because of about sometimes drinking and those kind of business activity happens in private clubs which provide sexual entertainment. That is what I hate the most. People need to serve their clients well by satisfying their private desires and one can get the contract. It sounds so patriarchal and unprofessional.
Why a serious business transaction should be processed in this kind of background?
Although I imagine if I can be part of the government members then I might have higher possibility to wipe out the awful culture by public power, the pathetic truth is it’s all about demand and supply. To satisfy self-interest is human nature, in China, it shows by taking bribes and the alcohol business culture, and in America they also have “private member’s club”for rich people only, what kind of transactions are dealing in it we don’t know.
So the main problem is the low sense of the morality, which makes to make people think it’s fine to be tipsy or drunk and deal with an important project in the private clubs and get self-interest from it. The best way to decrease the behavior is raising people’s sense of morality by education. Taiwan was the same in decades ago, but people became more and more seldom to talk about business when getting drunk or in sexual entertainment clubs. It’s difficult to eliminate but can improved be better.

Vocabulary

implement – shi shi
i.e. When can our plan start to be implemented?

comfort – an wei
i.e. I can just comfort myself this way.

miss-hear – misunderstand something

obstacle – difficulty

write about the biggest work obstacle you have encountered and how you resolved it