Euroasia: Language, Culture and Travel

In this article, Jack Yan talks about growing up in Wellington, and how being multilingual has helped him with living life to the fullest.  Jack is a renowned businessman from Hong Kong/Wellington, and publisher of fashion magazine Lucire. He has been very successful at building a global brand, and now delving into politics. If Jack has his way, Wellington City will get free wifi, one car-less Sunday a year, perhaps even solar-powered council buildings.

Jack has a good chance of becoming the next Mayor of Wellington City. If you google “Wellington mayor”, you will see Jack’s campaign site displayed prominently on page 1 (after the official Wellington site and Wikipedia), further demonstration of Jack’s internet marketing prowess. Jack is impressive not just because of his amazing business credentials. I remember chatting with him a few years ago and discovering he is one of very few Kiwis who can speak both French and Cantonese – and putting his language skills to good use in business.

I hope Jack’s story will inspire you to learn another language, perhaps to finally work on the new year resolution that keeps reappearing on your list every January.

In the 1970s, New Zealand was a far more monocultural place. When I was four, two of my cousins, who were slightly older, were attending primary school and started speaking English at home, instead of our native Cantonese. I asked my parents if I could do the same.

My parents were usually pretty good at rationalizing things to me. Mum explained, ‘No, because it’s important that you speak Cantonese at home, and leave English for outside. Wouldn’t it be better to speak two languages well rather than one?’

That sold me.

A similar argument came at age six, when my parents asked if I would like to learn an extra language.

The choices offered in 1978 at St Mark’s Church School, Wellington, were French and Japanese.

‘Wouldn’t you like to learn Japanese?’ asked Mum. ‘The Japanese have some characters that are the same as ours, and you can learn to write your own language.’

While none of my Japanese friends would like to hear this, the thought that went through my mind at that age was, ‘I’m not learning a form of Chinese with the wrong pronunciations.’ Hey, I was six.

However, I never regretted that decision.

Of all my travels, I only have visited Japan once. Few business opportunities ever availed themselves in that country. However, I have visited France over half a dozen times, with most of those times for work.

It’s especially handy given I own a fashion magazine, Lucire, and Paris is very much the centre of that industry in so many respects. Even things as simple as filling in a form present no challenges.

At the Medinge Group, a think-tank where I am a director, we hand out Brands with a Conscience every year. We do so from Paris, rather than our usual Swedish location.

Even back in Wellington, French is very useful when chatting to expatriates or dealing with the diplomatic corps.

It’s been a good foundation for other countries. For example, I was able to travel through Italy and understand the locals. The languages are dissimilar, but there are enough common roots that you can get pick out key words and get about the place.

I would hate to think where I would be without these languages. Certainly in business, I would have lost plenty of opportunities dealing with French designers, photographers, and make-up artists. I would not have been able to develop business in Hong Kong, my home town, where Cantonese is the norm. I would have been pretty lost in various American Chinatowns, unable to get proper medicine if I was sick, if I did not have any Taishanese.

I also have a limited grasp of Swedish, which has helped my work at Medinge and some of the work I do in Sweden.

While 90 per cent of Swedes speak English, Swedish is still the language in which they conduct most of their lives, so being able to read and write some of it, even if my comprehension has some way to go, has been incredibly useful.

With understanding a language comes understanding a culture, often the biggest barrier in international business.

The extra language is an extra means to get inside the other side’s mindsets, and attempt to find that common ground where you can do business or form a friendship.

As a mayoral candidate, I have discovered that the skills you acquire in learning languages come into play in politics.

Over the 18 months, in preparation for my mayoral run, I have attended more diplomatic events, in part to pave the way for better relations with other countries should I be elected.

You can’t just go and demand sister-city relationships with others if you don’t lay the groundwork first. To do that, you must have some accord.

In all these conversations, you are acutely aware that you are an ambassador for Wellington and New Zealand, and you are finding a way to promote us in a way our foreign visitors understand.

They respect you in return because you know your own language and heritage, those of the country which you have adopted as your home for 34 years, and you have extended your goodwill by embracing theirs.

Beyond business, arts, cultural exchanges and politics, multilingualism gives a person one extra thing.

It shows that you are complete, and you have a sense of self. That equates best to the Māori concept of mana. It is the greatest advantage one has over others in so many facets of life.

OK This is going to be a long-ish post, to update you with all the goss over the past month. I have been very busy with various projects, travelling, attending all sorts of forums and events, and trying to keep up with everything else. It’s Christmas eve, and I finally get to do some blogging.  I dread to think what it must be like in the shopping malls right now, so this is a welcome reprieve.

We had the annual Euroasia Christmas party late this year (11 Dec 09). We had a decent turnout of around 80 clients and friends of Euroasia, which is OK seeing we clashed with many other corporate parties. File note: next year we definitely have to do this the first week of Dec, perhaps even late-Nov.  As you can see, those who managed to make it had a great time.

We didn’t do any Christmas carols in  Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Japanese like we did last year… but our team did organise some cool games. It was also a great opportunity for me to thank all our clients for their unwavering support to us over the past year. Dr John Reynolds spoke eloquently in 3 languages about his language learning experience at Euroasia.

Ken with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and fellow businessmen from Australia..

A few months ago, I accepted an invitation to speak at the World Chinese Economic Forum in November and held in Kuala Lumpur (which happens to be my hometown).   I’m really glad I went, as I managed to meet a number of very interesting people.  At my session, I talked about how overseas Chinese can assist businesspeople from Western nations, including New Zealand, to access new markets in Asia generally and China specifically. I provided examples of enterprising Chinese businesspeople facilitating trade opportunities. In the past, New Zealand chicken producers had to spend money to dispose of chicken parts like chicken feet (that Westerners don’t eat, but Chinese love). Through the intervention of Chinese traders, NZ chicken producers have not only saved money from having to dispose of these chicken parts, but are now profiting from the sales of these parts. There are plenty of business opportunities in China that New Zealanders are missing out on because of the DIY mindset. A far superior approach is to collaborate with Asians who live in NZ and have an entrenched knowledge of the language and culture in the target market.   I’m hoping to devote more time and energy to work on these Asia Bridge initiatives in 2010.

At the Forum, I managed to have a chat with the Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng. When he found out that I lived in NZ,  he said “you Kiwis qualified for the world cup”, referring to news that New Zealand qualified for the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa and demonstrating his knowledge of New Zealand. I had to break it to him that NZ also qualified for the Hockey World Cup, beating Malaysia the day before the forum.

Ken with PM John Key

Earlier this month, I attended the annual APEC Advisory Business Council (ABAC) dinner, where the PM briefs members of the business community on what happened at APEC. This year, there’s lots to say about the economy and the PM has just arrived back from the East Asia Summit, Malaysia-NZ FTA, CHOGM, and about to go to Copenhagen.

I have previously blogged about this but one funny anecdote worth sharing is from the Q%A where a guy asked a serious question “If we want to catch Australia why not just merge with them?” The PM’s response: I just got back from CHOGM where Australian PM Kevin Rudd asked me the same question. My response was I’m too busy running New Zealand to run Australia as well. This guy can be very funny.  I do think John Key is more in touch with the masses than Helen Clark; and has a way with both CEOs  as well as joe public. Perhaps this explains his 80% favourability rating throughout a very difficult year.

Mock up of Euroasia's new website to be launched in 2010

In the new year, you will see the launch of Euroasia’s new website and enrolment system, which we have spent the last 2 months working on. Some people have asked us why we want to spend money on this, especially seeing this is a particularly difficult time. My response is that in order to maintain Euroasia’s position as a leading provider of foreign language courses and cross-cultural services, we have to keep investing in the business, and to keep improving our service offering, especially when times are bad. Recessions don’t last forever, and I’m optimistic that 2010 will be a spectacular year for Euroasia. As it stands, our forward bookings for 2010 are already way ahead of this time last year.

Over the next two weeks, I will spend some time hopefully relaxing and reflecting on the past year. If you’re like me, and need some help with the reflection process, I’ve found this guide pretty helpful. Ask yourself 20 questions that cover all facets of life, not just material prosperity.

Last Christmas, we produced a video compilation of Euroasia staff bringing Christmas and New Year greetings in their native languages. I hope you don’t mind me recycling (seeing it’s in vogue now) this message. Once again we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The huge uproar over a Tongan man found barbecuing his pet dog is a demonstration of cultural insensitivity bordering on ignorance and hyprocrisy.  Paea Taufa was found roasting the pitbull terrier-cross in an umu at his Mangere home. “If we eat heaps of… pig you get a (sore) stomach. But when we eat … dog, it doesn’t matter how much you eat, nothing is wrong with the tummy,” Taufa told Sunday News. Major dailies reported this, and today CNN carried the story, citing “the case infuriated and repulsed many New Zealanders.”

The Tongan guy had decided to cook the dog because it was too skinny and had become unmanageable. He rendered the dog unconscious with a blow to the head before slitting its throat. Under the Animal Welfare Act it is legal to kill a dog in New Zealand if the animal is slaughtered swiftly and painlessly.

The SPCA is very upset with Taufa, with the CEO saying “Even though the law says you can humanely kill an animal, you should not be treating any animal like this.” Many people are now calling for a law change, led by the SPCA, petitioning for the eating of dog meat to be banned. Various editorials swiftly condemned the practice of eating dog meat. The Tongan guy was demonised and probably traumatised, and he has since told media that he wouldn’t bbq another dog.

I am opposed to any attempt to ban the eating of dog meat and backyard dog barbecues.

New Zealanders love their meat and is only behind Demark globally (and ahead of the Americans) in terms of per capita consumption, 3.5 times the world average. The average Kiwi eats over 90 kg of meat per year, 65% red meat vs 35% white meat.

What is the difference between sheep and dogs? Some argue that dogs are pets. But some sheep are pets too. So are some chickens. Why ban the consumption of one type of meat but not another?

It is more inhumane for most of the pigs in New Zealand to be locked up in cages for all their lives and then slaughtered for their meat, than for Mr Taufa to kill a free-range dog swiftly. Why did people not revolt against pig farmers, especially after Mike King’s expose on TVNZ’s Sunday?  When told that the cost of pork in supermarkets will rise significantly if farmers moved to free-range farming, people stopped complaining.

Some argue that cattle and sheep are raised specifically for their meat, and dogs are not.  By that token would the protesters be placated if enterprising individuals started dog farms in New Zealand? We export tonnes of horse meat offshore. This means we are killing farm horses in huge numbers. Would horse-killers be regarded as barbaric too?

The argument that we cannot kill dogs for food because they are cute/friendly/small/intelligent doesn’t wash. We don’t see our vegetarian friends getting all judgemental when we meat-eaters confess our love for meat (as long as it’s not from an endangered species). Why can’t meat-eaters afford the same courtesy to dog-eaters? No one is asking you to join them.

SPCA CEO says: “The slaughtering, roasting and eating of a dog or other companion animal is simply abhorrent to our culture as New Zealanders”.  Dogs were eaten in New Zealand long before the Europeans arrived. Taufa himself is probably a NZ citizen. The SPCA is venturing into dangerous territory by becoming an arbitrator of what is culturally right or wrong.

The main thing that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals should be worried about is exactly that, prevention of animal cruelty. As long as animals are slaughtered in a humane manner, then what people eat should be left up to them.

The law doesn’t need to be changed. It’s the hypocritical mindset of protesters coming from the second biggest meat-eating country in the world that does.

I asked my friend Verpal Singh to pen a few thoughts on what he thinks are the latent resources in New Zealand. My views on the economic and social benefits of cultural diversity is well-known as I regularly talk about harnessing New Zealand’s cultural diversity.  As such, it is good that Verpal can add some of his thoughts here:

1. Cultural diversity is not unique to New Zealand as the whole world is becoming culturally diverse and those countries which are resisting this movement are gradually acquiring an image of being out-of-sync. Sure this diversity should be harnessed to benefit NZ. However, when other diverse societies also seek to use their diversity for their own benefit, we reach a situation where NZ is competing with others for a piece of the diversity cake.

2. As I did during the World Cafe discussion, I would list the following three aspects of NZ as our latent resource:
a) As members of the developed world, we are the insiders. However, due to our geographical location, smaller population and relatively small-sized economy, we are also the outsiders. This puts us in a unique position of an outsider while being on the inside. We, thus, provide an outsider’s perpsective to problems facing the developed world, while experiencing these same problems first-hand. The tradition of providing leadership to the world, set by people like Sir Ernest in Physics and Sir Ed in pushing the limits of human endurance is being eminently followed by New Zealanders like Dr John Hood (Vice Chancellor of Oxford University), Chris Liddell (CFO, Microsoft) and Helen Clark (head of UNDP) amongst many many others, and bears testimony to the fact that New Zealanders’ unique perspective is being appreciated by the world. The only possible equivalent in these aspects (that I could find) is Iceland.

b) The ease of contact between the rulers and the ruled in the New Zealand system of governance. This empowers the people and provides them the opportunity to show their leadership in areas that they hold dear, whether it is environment protection, opposition to Nuclear arms, or a more equal world.

c) A long history of technological innovation — which is the most important part of Ray Avery’s work. Combined with a) and b), an innovative idea has greater potential to be turned into a great enterprise in New Zealand than even in USA (where the power enjoyed by established commercial entities to influence government decision-making in their favour seems to have killed off Americans’ innovative streak — their car industry being a prime example of this).

I had a quick look at the itunes panel as I synced my phone to the laptop. Scrolling through the list of the Top 15 albums, songs, videos etc, everywhere I looked it was Michael Jackson.

MJ songs on itunes

In this screen shot of the top 15 music videos sold on itunes, all bar one were Michael Jackson songs.

In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as “Beat It“, “Billie Jean” and “Thriller“ — widely credited with transforming the music video from a promotional tool into an art form — helped bring the relatively new channel to fame. (Source: Wikipedia)

One of the music icons of our time has now passed on. I remember vividly those MJ music videos. The controversy aside, Michael Jackson made HIStory.  He captivated an entire generation, across cultural and national boundaries.

He showed us that it don’t matter if you’re black or white.

If you’re like me, you would be thinking why the heck would people stand in line to pay $500 to some scammers in return for automatic approval of New Zealand residency.

Apparently, the story is that some guy has been going around the country selling visa stamps like how people peddle club memberships.

You stand in line with $500 cash in hand. You pay $500 and they stamp your passport, and voila, you’re now Maori, and hence granted automatic permanent residency.  It’s open to all applicants, as long as you have 500 bucks cash to fork out.

Hundreds of people turned up at a marae in Mangere last night. And a thousand the night prior at Manurewa. The people scammed are mostly desperate Islanders eager to get residency.

It’s shameful that often the most vulnerable members of society get scammed. Usually the most vulnerable ones are also the most guillible. You might be thinking this only happens to dumb people.  But just because you went to university and hold a respectable job doesn’t mean you’re immune to scams.  I came across another story recently, where a Kiwi businesswoman gave away $680,000 in 10 weeks  to some fraudster who claimed to be an American-born geologist who lived in New Zealand but was overseas on business. They met on some internet dating site, and he professed his love. He managed to get her to send progressively larger amounts before the scam unravelled. Obviously she’s not dumb if she has $680K cash to send overseas.

The point is we need to have some level of empathy with what people are going through.  In the meantime, I’ll be warning desperate immigrants that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

No matter how good we are at foreign languages, the fact remains that a lot of the time we will be communicating with non-native speakers of English – in English! We may find ourselves using English with non-native speakers in business meetings, either at home or overseas, writing emails or publicity materials intended for them, or simply working and living alongside them. But how much thought do we give to our use of English? Are we using our own language as clearly and succinctly as we can? And if we are not, what impact does that have on our business or professional lives, or even our personal lives?

Some difficult issues that perhaps too many native English speakers don’t pay much attention too. At Euroasia, we’ve been contemplating these issues, and Peter has been working on some exciting initiatives in this area.

This is really funny. Catherine Tate plays an interpreter that had to stand in at the last minute because the professional didn’t turn up.  All of us hold prejudices and stereotypes, and this short video shows us some of the subconscious ones.

My apologies if you find this offensive. You know who to call to prevent yourself from getting into a similar pickle.