Sino-Style Training

Training classes at a Chinese company can take many shapes and forms. Being one of the only foreigners, they started me teaching an Advanced English Class, but what I found is that many of the students are more interested about other cultures and communicating with Westerners. They can certainly speak English, however maybe a bit shy. So I decided the best thing was to start a “club.” Actually my company has many different types of clubs: photography, English, even Cheerleading (which I think is just to go and watch sports matches)…so why not add the International Culture Club?!
I only wish I had more time because I started a small set of workshops called Globalize Yourself. My first class was an Introduction to Wines. The whole concept of drinking good wines is quite foreign to the Chinese. They have a particular taste for rice wine and another soy sauce tasting, Yellow wine, but really have no clue about international wines, how to drink them, where to buy them. So I felt have a small lesson and a tasting and keep it simple. About 10 people dared to come to the class and we had a bit of a laugh together. They tried their hand at pouring and when it came to tasting the look on their faces was stellar. I think they found that with time an acquired taste will develop, but now they want fruity and sweet. I just told them to stay away from China’s own Great Wall wine!

Another training that went over well was Western food and International music. I decided to base it around the holiday season and brought in some Thanksgiving favorites: stuffing, roasted pumpkin soup, and pumpkin pie (the Chinese frozen version, which was quite good). They also learned about some quirky things such as how many Americans go overboard decorating their houses, probably eat too much food which results in weight gain, and that we name each of Santa’s reindeer..and one of them Rudolph has a shiny red nose. Yup, these kinds of things sound really funny to a country that does not believe in religion really.