By: Casey Sanders
My name is Casey Sanders and I spent this summer in Shanghai, China as an application engineer intern at Emerson (Branson Ultrasonics) as a part of the COSE Internship SCSU offers. This experience was life changing for me, both personally and professionally. I am writing this blog post to share how I prepared beforehand and how I was able to make the most of my experience!
1 – Shanghai Tower, Shanghai, China
中国，上海，上海中心大厦
Professional Experience
We live in an international economy, there is no escaping this fact! If you know how to effectively collaborate across time zones you are a greater asset anywhere you go.
During my time in China I was able to become well versed in ultrasonic welding and understanding the relationships between vendors and customers. We often worked with customers who came to us with problems during their product development process. They were on a tight timeline and they usually didn’t have the same understanding of how ultrasonic welding works. Working on these fast paced projects was a good way to learn how to work well under pressure in a professional setting!
Also, customers often came in to work with us on projects. We had two Microsoft engineers from Seattle come in to visit us. These moments were very high stakes and having the opportunity to understand how to work with customers during these moments was very valuable. I left that experience with two very valuable lessons: it is critical to be prepared for these visits and to leave an excellent impression.
3 – Zhongshan Mountain, Nanjing, China
中国，南京，钟山
Manufacturing today is an international process, having the ability to see what what this process looks like outside of America is incredibly valuable and it empowers you to make decisions that are positive for everyone involved. I left China with an incredible resume builder and an experience that makes myself stand out! From day one in China I had an excellent support network and I still would have been able to get the same experience even if I didn’t prepare beforehand. Understanding the language allowed me to leave with a much better understanding of the culture in China.
Learning to speak the language
The best way to learn a language is when you surrounded by it every day. Learning the basics of Mandarin before you go to China will allow you to be independent and make the most out of your trip. Note that Chinese is an umbrella term for a group of languages, Mandarin is the most common dialect of Chinese.
This is a menu at a milk tea/coffee shop I came across! I wanted to order in Mandarin in case the employee on the other side of the counter didn’t understand English.
Pleco’s OCR helped me “read” the characters by converting them to Pinyin. This is a screenshot from my phone. Chocolate latte = 浓情巧克力 = Nóng qíng qiǎokèlì
Fortunately, there are many resources out there to help you learn the basics before you depart. There are many free resources out there, especially on YouTube (such as this 30 minute video that shows you the basics of spoken Mandarin). The value that paid services offer is that they help guide your learning and force you to practice the things you learned in previous lessons. I used Pimsleur which costs $14.95/month and is designed to let you start learning by doing one 30 minute lesson per day. You can go at any pace that you want. Because it is charged per month, the more lessons you can do per month the more value you get!
The ability to read pinyin will allow you to look up words on your phone (with a dictionary like Pleco) in the moment and learn new words by using them! This is also something you can learn on YouTube. Pinyin is a Romanization system for Chinese which helps native English speakers “read” Chinese. It makes learning how to speak Mandarin much easier! Also, pinyin is a common way to type in Chinese characters into your phone. Being able to type in Chinese characters will allow you to use Chinese apps to get around!
Eventually you will be ready to take your language learning to the next level. Tandem, an app that connects you with native speakers of another language, will help you get comfortable speaking with people and help improve your listening skills. This is a great resource to use once you can have basic conversations.
How can I use my language skills?
Don’t expect to become fluent over the course of a few months, just try and learn as much as you can! You will be so grateful that you at least learned the basics before arriving. During my 2 months in China, the first month was just acclimating to the culture and after the first month I started to understand the Mandarin I was hearing around me. It was very rewarding and I started to learn new words much quicker!
The cheap rental bikes (~$0.14 per 30 min) and plentiful bicycle lanes make getting around in China very convenient! Taxi apps, like Didi (an Uber/Lyft equivalent) are also very affordable to use.
Songjiang, China
中国，松江
When listening to spoken Mandarin around you, the context does a lot to help you understand what is being said. You don’t need to understand every single word! With context, you will usually be able to understand the main ideas of conversations in the workplace. During my internship, I would hear engineers talking together about ultrasonic plastic welding. Even though many technical terms were used I was usually still able to get the main idea of what they were saying.
When you have that basic understanding figured out then you feel much more confident to pay attention and try to understand what you can. Fortunately, most of my coworkers spoke English! It was fun to occasionally speak Mandarin, everyday my coworkers could say “吃午饭时间！” (it’s lunch time!) and “明天见！” (see you tomorrow!). This was an excellent starting point and it allowed me to work up to forming my own sentences in Mandarin.
In this menu I can only read “牛肉拉面” (beef & hand pulled noodle soup, top left item).
I would go to new areas and look for restaurants with 面 (noodles) in the name because these were noodle restaurants and I knew they would have something I could order!
With less than 10 words it is possible to go out and order at restaurants on your own.
Songjiang, China
中国，松江
When I wanted to go out on weekends, my Mandarin knowledge was a huge help. I would be able to speak with taxi drivers and order food from restaurants! I was able to meet up with people I met on Tandem and explore parts of China that I would have been hard to see otherwise. The people I met up with wanted to practice their English and I wanted to practice my Mandarin, it was a win-win! Also, it gave both of us the opportunity to see a new viewpoint from another culture.
I started forming these connections on Tandem months before I departed, I had less than 10 weekends there so I had a rough schedule before I arrived. Meeting up with these people allowed me to have deep conversations about the culture, we were equally interested in the culture that seemed foreign to the both of us! China is so unique because the internet censorship causes the people living there to see a different part of the internet. When almost the entire world uses the same websites to finds news (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) it can be easy to forget that it can prevent us from seeing the whole picture. I had the opportunity to have some very insightful conversations about cultural differences.
There is no way I would have seen this spot if it weren’t for the amazing people I met in China.
Tongli Ancient Town，Suzhou, China
中国，苏州，同理景区古镇
I had no idea my experience in China would leave such an impact on me when I signed up for it. I think it is hard to communicate the value these experiences have! This post highlights what I personally got out of my time in China, although I am sure the possibilities of what you may get out of it are endless.
Please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn if you would like to learn more about this opportunity and how you can make the most of it. This article only contained a small portion of what I learned and I would be happy to share more tips!