You have 7 years to learn mandarin
- Thread starter pitzerwm
- Start date
Ben's Car Wash
Conveyor & self service
I happen to tell my daughter Miranda yesterday that I wanted her to take Mandarin Chineese.... what a coinsidence. Ben is bi-lingual now in his 5th year of Spanish, Courney in her second of Spanish and Miranda has some spanish. She was supprised that I told her I wanted her to learn Chinesse yesterday (before I read this). Now I'm more solidified in my thought.
In the 80's -early 90's if you wanted to do internation business you need to speak Japaneese. In the near future, if you want to compete in business you'll need to speak Mandrin Chineese (the most spoken language in the World).
In the 80's -early 90's if you wanted to do internation business you need to speak Japaneese. In the near future, if you want to compete in business you'll need to speak Mandrin Chineese (the most spoken language in the World).
Danny
Member
My two cents...
Ni hao!
This article is possible if the U.S. and europe keep giving away our knowledge and experience. I went to China in Oct of 07. The chinese manufacturing and technology advancement is dependent on outside help. They are however the masters of copying. They can copy anything, even from a picture in some cases. Where they lack is in understanding the quality that is required for U.S. and european markets. This is where the problem can occur, U.S. and european companies give the knowledge of perfecting the product for sale into these markets. Keep in mind that industrial espeonage, trademark and patent infringement is rampant in China (this is do to a lack of the feeling of personal ownership of anything). Once the information is passed onto one source in China it is generally a matter of time before it is everywhere.
How do we compete with this? Chinese companies are not interested in exporting smaller manufactured items. They want every export to be huge "how many containers a week/month?". They have the "Wal mart" and "Home Depot" taste in their mouth and think everyone in the U.S. is like this. Small or specialty manufacturers are reasonably safe. It is also generally cost/time prohibitive to export materials only available in the U.S. to China for the less expensive manufacturing and ship back. These items are also reasonably safe. The U.S. and european manufacturers were simply priced out of the market on low quality/price products by China. If the technology and quality sectors keep their knowledge here this will also slow China's ability to grow. Service, retail and distribution are safe as long as their is money in american pockets to spend on it.
Capitalism has infected their entire culture and slowly limiting communisms ability to maintain power. You can see in the people the difference in the older generations raised under communist strong hold, the middle aged generation adjusting to capitalism and the younger generations that have fully embraced it. China has a problem...the people like money. They have instated minimum wage standards in some areas, unskilled labor is getting more difficult to find, housing has more requirements, and more cars on the road. Just look at Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea as examples. The rest of the world has started putting pressure on China to allow its exchange/interest rates to fluctuate more naturally. This causes a problem when the U.S. dollar is going down, RMB/yuan goes up and the "cheap" prices are no longer such a great deal. If China were to experience the same requirements in environmental and safety concerns as the U.S. and european companies are held to this gap in costs would become even more narrow. Manufacturing is coming back on some items, slowly, but still coming back.
China is also kept in check by a major competitor, India with 1.1 billion people to China's 1.3 billion. There are also the other surrounding smaller competitors like S. Korea, Viatnam, Taiwan, and Malaysia. North Korea has also takin note of China's success and has opened small controlled economic zones allowing foreign investment in southern North Korea.
I speak some spanish (very rusty) and started to learn some mandarin for my trip. What I found is that the younger generations are taking up to 10yrs in some cases of schooling in english. First to be able to get a higher paying job, and second in hopes of being hired by a foriegn company and one day being able to leave China.
Xie xie
Ni hao!
This article is possible if the U.S. and europe keep giving away our knowledge and experience. I went to China in Oct of 07. The chinese manufacturing and technology advancement is dependent on outside help. They are however the masters of copying. They can copy anything, even from a picture in some cases. Where they lack is in understanding the quality that is required for U.S. and european markets. This is where the problem can occur, U.S. and european companies give the knowledge of perfecting the product for sale into these markets. Keep in mind that industrial espeonage, trademark and patent infringement is rampant in China (this is do to a lack of the feeling of personal ownership of anything). Once the information is passed onto one source in China it is generally a matter of time before it is everywhere.
How do we compete with this? Chinese companies are not interested in exporting smaller manufactured items. They want every export to be huge "how many containers a week/month?". They have the "Wal mart" and "Home Depot" taste in their mouth and think everyone in the U.S. is like this. Small or specialty manufacturers are reasonably safe. It is also generally cost/time prohibitive to export materials only available in the U.S. to China for the less expensive manufacturing and ship back. These items are also reasonably safe. The U.S. and european manufacturers were simply priced out of the market on low quality/price products by China. If the technology and quality sectors keep their knowledge here this will also slow China's ability to grow. Service, retail and distribution are safe as long as their is money in american pockets to spend on it.
Capitalism has infected their entire culture and slowly limiting communisms ability to maintain power. You can see in the people the difference in the older generations raised under communist strong hold, the middle aged generation adjusting to capitalism and the younger generations that have fully embraced it. China has a problem...the people like money. They have instated minimum wage standards in some areas, unskilled labor is getting more difficult to find, housing has more requirements, and more cars on the road. Just look at Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea as examples. The rest of the world has started putting pressure on China to allow its exchange/interest rates to fluctuate more naturally. This causes a problem when the U.S. dollar is going down, RMB/yuan goes up and the "cheap" prices are no longer such a great deal. If China were to experience the same requirements in environmental and safety concerns as the U.S. and european companies are held to this gap in costs would become even more narrow. Manufacturing is coming back on some items, slowly, but still coming back.
China is also kept in check by a major competitor, India with 1.1 billion people to China's 1.3 billion. There are also the other surrounding smaller competitors like S. Korea, Viatnam, Taiwan, and Malaysia. North Korea has also takin note of China's success and has opened small controlled economic zones allowing foreign investment in southern North Korea.
I speak some spanish (very rusty) and started to learn some mandarin for my trip. What I found is that the younger generations are taking up to 10yrs in some cases of schooling in english. First to be able to get a higher paying job, and second in hopes of being hired by a foriegn company and one day being able to leave China.
Xie xie
Ben's Car Wash
Conveyor & self service
Of course there is this little problem with HEPARIN and patients dying this year from tainted products of cheap immatations being added and lack of oversight in China's production. And the toy scare this Christmas over Lead in everything. Now I hear of dead poultry being collected and dyed in large quantities and sold to Walmart. However the biggest threat is that most of the money flowing into China is going into RED CHINA and the Chineese ARMY who is buying Milatary components and equipment like it's going out of style... and by get leases of major US port (and the Panama Canal Zone) the are getting a stragic advantage.
pitzerwm
Active member
Danny, one thing that you are maybe missing. For every 1 person graduating in the US in engineering, 30 are graduating in China, pretty soon they will have the knowledge to out innovate us. The next 20 years are going to bring about a lot of change, some very ugly.
Danny
Member
Oh I absolutely agree with that. It is a delicate balance for the US and Europe to not lose ground. They are trying to educate themselves and bring themselves out of a state of poverty (which is how the majority of the chinese live). Keep in mind though that many of these bright young minds want to leave China. If the technology is kept in the US and Europe the best jobs for these minds will be in the US and Europe. The quality of the chinese engineering is well behind our technology. A common situation in China is to bring in US or european made equipment to manufacture with since the chinese equipment is not good enough. The chinese will then copy every possible demension of the foreign made equipment. They have copied Toyota Camry, even down to the emblems and the apple IPHONE down to the chimes and logos (just to name two big brand names). Taiwan and Korean manufacturers, in some cases, require passwords to view their websites and will no longer send product into China because of blatant copying. This is in an effort to protect their future. It will not take long for the chinese to catch up if we keep giving our advantages away.
pitzerwm
Active member
IMO, What you say is true and it will not change, only get worse. Your job is to figure out how to survive, in light of these facts. Just like you have to figure out how you are going to survive paying $5 a gal for gas and 10-20% more for most products. Adversity creates opportunity, but you have to realize that life will not be going backwards. Only the unknown.
Danny
Member
Surviving and helping America to survive is something I keep in mind all the time. I am a distributor and I make an effort to carry american made products and better engineered products. All my air hoses, vacuum hoses, vacuum nozzles, polishing pads, brushes, extractors, and various other products are made here in the U.S. They cost a little more than the imports (making my margins smaller in order to compete) I could easily carry the imports but I NEVER get customer complaints on the U.S. products! If it is not available in the US then I look to european and australian made products, for the quality. The items I generally carry that are from China are the products that are no longer available here such as applicator sponges, the US and european manufacturers are simply gone. Even then the products are engineered by US and production is in China (leading to the problems I mentioned before) but it does provide the best quality available.
I do what I can...which is all any of us can do.
How many consumers do what they can by looking for the stars and stripes with "MADE IN THE U.S.A." printed underneath? How many are buying strictly off of price?
pitzerwm
Active member
Article about China taking over Africa
This is rather large, see related articles on left. I think that it is worth the read.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/special-report-china-in-africa.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/mozambique-a-chain-saw-for-every-tree.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/zambia-chinas-mine-shaft.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/congo-a-moment-of-truth.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/equatorial-guinea-a-strongman-turns-east.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/endgame-hypocrisy-blindness-and-the-doomsday-scenario.html
This is rather large, see related articles on left. I think that it is worth the read.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/special-report-china-in-africa.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/mozambique-a-chain-saw-for-every-tree.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/zambia-chinas-mine-shaft.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/congo-a-moment-of-truth.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/equatorial-guinea-a-strongman-turns-east.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/endgame-hypocrisy-blindness-and-the-doomsday-scenario.html
Greg Pack
Wash Weenie
Great posts Danny!
Danny
Member
oh well