parkerm,

I'm from New Zealand and have been in China since 2001. I came here and didn't know shit about the culture or the language. I joined SOM after 6 months of teaching English.

I'd be careful about trying to fake it because all the foreigners who come to China to work for architecture companies really are 'fluent' and they expect the same out of who they hire to join their team.

If you decide to come here, I found the best way to pick up the language is loose, Chinese women. Undoubtly, you will learn 'pillow talk' first but after that everything seems to fall in place.

After a year with SOM, I gained a stack of contacts and was in a position to open my own studio. I have four employees (all Chinese) and we are neck deep with commissions.

Cheers!

ha!
what about loose men?

there are more than plenty available men in china.

"not for all the teabags in china"

I guess it's a matter of preference parkerm and whatever floats your boat. Personally, I like shagging women! Cheers!

(parker is probably a clamscam, dudebrodio. shit atttitude is definite sign of a forod and should be met with a cool blast of frigidaire.)

or...parkerm is a chick
but whatevs!

... this thread is wierd

also, i've heard chinese firms are "lazy." is that true? what's your work-week like?

jk3hl,

Yeah, working with the Chinese can be a bit aggrannoying at times. You've really got to get 'em off their QQ (China's version of Msn Messenger, FaceBook, etc.).

I now have my own studio, so I can control most of that crap but I don't wanna be too big of an a**hole because of our work load.

All in all they do a decent job as far as drafting, model making and the like. They are priceless when it comes to getting commissions because they understand their own culture far more than outsiders.

As far as being 'lazy' it all has to do with location, location, location. I'm based in Shenzhen which is a dynamic city next to Hong Kong so they pretty much stay focused. If you get too far north, they can be a toad on drift wood - just for the ride!!

Cheers!

All Blacks!

Good to hear of a kiwi doing well in China - must be a fascinating place to work and live. I have visited Foshan for business a few years ago and travelled through Shenzen on my way to Shantou.

Would like to hear more about your experiences.

D

ps: go the All Blacks

...this thread is weird

Deception of abilities, boasting, bizarre lingo, gender-baiting, jingoism

Do you dudebrodios work for Salon?

I wished!

loose chinese women..? lazy chinese workers.

oh oh..what about those obnoxious white men who get drunk all the time have no morales pay for sex with foreign women because they think they are white supremacist.

this is some strange thread.

I have a Morales... he cuts my lawn on every other Thursday.

He ain't cheap or lazy. Though he insists that he gets a paid one hour siesta for every 5 hours of work.

i knew spell check wasn't being v. nice to me..!
one hour siesta and a hot love affair with a repressed alcoholic housewife

all blacks, did they speak mandarin or english around the office at SOM?

parkerm,

I'd say about 60/20/20 (60% Mandarin / 20% English / 20% Other). We had a rack of French, handful of Germans and some Brits. Brits are supposed to speak English, spawning the language and such but sure are hard to understand at times. The French basically refuse to speak English. The Germans tried to speak English.

All in all a house full of pompous, arrogant architects and designers! It was a fresh working environment and great experience!

Cheers!