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For the company, shut your dialect mouths!
An article at YWeekend looks at a trend many find annoying: speaking in local dialect at the office. A similar opinion came last month from Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who came out against learning Chinese dialects of any kind while promoting his country’s Speak Mandarin campaign. YWeekend’s writer doesn’t go so far, but still gets a little miffed.
为公司，闭上方言嘴
For the company, shut your dialect mouths!
People in offices who speak loudly in dialect may feel they are very cool and very fashionable, but other uncomprehending people see them as very backward.
Recently, a small, privately held enterprise in Wuhan issued a “prohibition against dialects” to its workers, stipulating that “speaking one sentence in Wuhan dialect will be penalized 10 yuan,” which immediately caused a heated debate on the Internet. Some people said everybody is a local person, so what is the problem with speaking dialects in the office? Is it worth it to make such a big deal out of it?
A fine for speaking in dialect — maybe this is actually going too far, but companies have issued this kind of ruthless scam, assuming that it is beyond bearable. Offices are full of a wide variety of dialects — it is a stage for dialects and they show in turns. It is not fashionable for workers to answer the telephone in Mandarin: companies greatly water-down their public image. Local coworkers are in dialect cliques, and the cost to outsider coworkers is that, even if they do their best, it is impossible for them to blend in… can these problems be resolved with ten yuan?
It seems that the most popular cities in China for working are only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and some others. These developed cities are full of strife and myriad young people’s dreams, and struggling workers who cannot speak Mandarin find it very difficult to find their place. But according to current trends, only being able to speak Mandarin and foreign languages is not enough to dive into the heart of the “enemy;” outsiders still must take on a “fourth language” to be able to have a clear shot — doesn’t this make things difficult for people?
A woman who used to work at a Fortune 500 company was sought out by a Shanghai company to receive a high salary as a project manager; in just three days she just put in her resignation. Her reason was that two-thirds of the people in the office all like to use Shanghai dialect to talk to each other; lunch time is even more so, “everywhere a potpourri of bird languages” — this is a language barrier that she never expected before coming to work for this company. She did not want to spend her after-business hours enrolled in Shanghai dialect classes, so she had no choice but to change her environment and start over again.
Of course, some people may say that this woman worker’s worldview is not open enough; if she were struggling in Guangzhou, it is very possible that she would be compelled by her boss to learn Cantonese within half a year, otherwise she should not even try. I also have a close friend who sells things and has a developed sense of dialects: he talks to Beijing people with a thick Beijing accent; with Shanghai people he comes out with some Shanghai Rap; he discusses the serenity in San Gege’s books with Guangzhou people; and when he bumps into Shanxi people looking for sex, he comes out with an “Oh my God!” Being this way was made necessary by the realities of work, the reason being that it cuts the distance between people when they interact, creating a favorable first impression. When there is an office meeting, this person absolutely speaks standard Mandarin, seeming like an announcer.
Actually, using Mandarin to communicate is basic respect for other coworkers: if two coworkers in an office persist in using dialect to communicate, people next to them have a difficult time not being confused, and indeed they will think about whether or not they are talking behind their backs. Even more people say that people who speak loudly, in dialect, in an office may feel very cool and very fashionable, but other people who do not know the dialect will look on them as very backward.
There is nothing wrong with dialects. Actions which protect dialects are good things; local television stations that broadcast some programs in dialect are also very interesting. But, no matter how good a dialect sounds, work spaces are not one’s own backyard. If a company wants to go national, or has the desire to go international, then from the beginning workers must be made to understand one thing — for the company, please shut your dialect mouths.
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为公司，闭上方言嘴
4 Responses to “For the company, shut your dialect mouths!”
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Shanghainese is easier to pronounce than Mandarin or Cantonese!!! It only has two tones rather than 4 i mandarin or 6 in Cantonese.
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I agree to shut the dialect mouths, I work for a company in changsha where has a dialect here changsha hua, as a changsha ren, personally i think changsha hua is ruder and louder than mandarin in some occasions. In my company there are some co-workers from outside changsha who speak their own dialects, It is funny and interesting to hear and learn some other dialects sometimes, however dialects cause misunderstandings at work, or take too much time to guess the real meaning. I propose to speak mandarin at work.
I once worked for a workplace where there were 5 languages spoken. I can understand 3 out of 5 languages so I was comfortable because I understood most of the time what people were saying. In my opinion, it is the discomfort of not understanding what is being said so it sometimes causes people to think that others are talking about them. When workers are not at ease in their work environment, it is very counterproductive. Workers would spend more time thinking things negatively about each other rather than concentrating on working. I’ve been in work groups where I was the only one that couldn’t speak the majority of the group’s ethnic language and let me share with you, I didn’t feel part of the group and felt I was missing out on the communication part. I think people should be allowed to talk in their ethnic dialect during off time like break or lunch time but definitely not during work time. It’s all really about common courtesy too. Why would you want to talk in a different dialect at a table with coworkers you know would not understand? It only puts up a barrier and creates tensions. Everyone should be considerate of each other to make it pleasant for each other. After all, we spend the majority of our time at work so we need to treat each other with respect and courtesy.