Business Mandarin for People Who Grew Up Speaking It

If Mandarin is a family language for you, you may be able to follow a meeting and chat with colleagues over lunch, and still freeze when the time comes to write an email or speak in front of a client. That is not a sign of weak Mandarin. It is a sign that you learned the language at home, and that home Mandarin and work Mandarin use different words for many of the same things.

This guide is about that gap. It covers the words that change, the polite forms work Chinese relies on, and the phrases you will see in almost every email. For templates for messages to teachers, landlords and offices, see Formal Chinese Messages, which covers message structure in detail. Everything here builds on it.

The same idea, another word

Spoken family Mandarin leans on short, everyday words. Work writing often reaches for a longer, more formal word for the same idea. You already know the left column. The right column is what you will meet in emails, reports and announcements:

At home	At work	Zhuyin	Pinyin	Meaning
說	表示	ㄅㄧㄠˇ ㄕˋ	biǎoshì	to state, express
問	詢問	ㄒㄩㄣˊ ㄨㄣˋ	xúnwèn	to ask, enquire
給	提供	ㄊㄧˊ ㄍㄨㄥ	tígōng	to provide
看	參閱	ㄘㄢ ㄩㄝˋ	cānyuè	to refer to, see (a document)
想	希望	ㄒㄧ ㄨㄤˋ	xīwàng	to hope, would like
回	回覆	ㄏㄨㄟˊ ㄈㄨˋ	huífù	to reply
幫忙	協助	ㄒㄧㄝˊ ㄓㄨˋ	xiézhù	to help, assist
用	使用	ㄕˇ ㄩㄥˋ	shǐyòng	to use
東西	資料	ㄗ ㄌㄧㄠˋ	zīliào	material, documents
知道	了解	ㄌㄧㄠˇ ㄐㄧㄝˇ	liǎojiě	to understand
快	盡快	ㄐㄧㄣˋ ㄎㄨㄞˋ	jìnkuài	as soon as possible
有空	方便	ㄈㄤ ㄅㄧㄢˋ	fāngbiàn	convenient (for you)
錢	費用	ㄈㄟˋ ㄩㄥˋ	fèiyòng	cost, fee

The words in the left column are not wrong at work. You will hear plenty of them in the office. But in writing, swapping in the right-hand word is often what separates a message that sounds like family from one that sounds like a colleague.

A habit worth forming: when you read a work email, look for the formal word that replaced one you would have used, and add it to your review list.

貴 and 敝: whose side is it

Work Chinese often marks which side something belongs to. Two characters do most of this work, and both are in Taiwan’s Ministry of Education dictionary:

• 貴 (ㄍㄨㄟˋ, guì) is an honorific for the other person’s things. 貴姓 (ㄍㄨㄟˋ ㄒㄧㄥˋ, guìxìng) is the respectful way to ask someone’s surname. 貴公司 (ㄍㄨㄟˋ ㄍㄨㄥ ㄙ, guì gōngsī) means “your company”; the dictionary gives it as an example of respectful wording.
• 敝 (ㄅㄧˋ, bì) is a humble prefix for your own side. 敝姓 is “my surname”. 敝公司 (ㄅㄧˋ ㄍㄨㄥ ㄙ, bì gōngsī) is “our company”, as in the dictionary’s example: 承蒙您大力幫忙，敝公司才能度過難關。 (“Thanks to your great help, our company got through a hard time.”)

Getting 貴 and 敝 the right way round is one of the quickest ways to make a work email read as though it came from someone at home in the register.

Phrases that turn up in almost every email

Phrase	Zhuyin	Pinyin	Use
附件	ㄈㄨˋ ㄐㄧㄢˋ	fùjiàn	attachment
煩請	ㄈㄢˊ ㄑㄧㄥˇ	fánqǐng	a polite “please”, for a request
敬請	ㄐㄧㄥˋ ㄑㄧㄥˇ	jìngqǐng	a respectful “please”
確認	ㄑㄩㄝˋ ㄖㄣˋ	quèrèn	to confirm
安排	ㄢ ㄆㄞˊ	ānpái	to arrange
討論	ㄊㄠˇ ㄌㄨㄣˋ	tǎolùn	to discuss
聯繫	ㄌㄧㄢˊ ㄒㄧˋ	liánxì	to contact
收到	ㄕㄡ ㄉㄠˋ	shōudào	received (e.g. your email)
敬祝 順利	ㄐㄧㄥˋ ㄓㄨˋ ㄕㄨㄣˋ ㄌㄧˋ	jìngzhù shùnlì	closing: wishing you success

A short email that brings them together:

王經理您好：

附件是這次會議的資料，煩請參閱。如有任何問題，歡迎與我聯繫。

謝謝您的協助。

敬祝 順利

陳小明

(Manager Wang, hello. Attached are the materials for this meeting; please take a look. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Thank you for your help. Wishing you success. Chen Xiaoming)

The structure (greeting, body, closing) follows the same pattern as any formal message; Formal Chinese Messages takes it step by step.

People and titles

You will use these every day:

Word	Zhuyin	Pinyin	Meaning
同事	ㄊㄨㄥˊ ㄕˋ	tóngshì	colleague
主管	ㄓㄨˇ ㄍㄨㄢˇ	zhǔguǎn	supervisor, head of a unit
經理	ㄐㄧㄥ ㄌㄧˇ	jīnglǐ	manager
總經理	ㄗㄨㄥˇ ㄐㄧㄥ ㄌㄧˇ	zǒngjīnglǐ	general manager
客戶	ㄎㄜˋ ㄏㄨˋ	kèhù	client
名片	ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄆㄧㄢˋ	míngpiàn	business card

Titles follow the surname: 王經理 (Manager Wang), 陳總經理. If 叔叔 or 阿姨 were how you addressed older family friends growing up, notice that managers and clients are usually addressed by title instead.

Reading is where most of the effort goes

If your listening is ahead of your reading, the spoken side of work Mandarin may come together faster: you can pick up the new vocabulary above by listening in meetings. Email, chat, reports and contracts depend on reading, so the larger gap is often there. A few habits help:

• Read in your field. Company announcements, industry news or your employer’s Chinese website give you the exact words you will need, in context.
• Keep a work word list. Every time you meet a formal word, add it with its everyday equivalent. Review it with spaced repetition.
• Type, don’t hand-write. Email and chat need typing, not handwriting; Zhuyin or Pinyin input is enough. Relearning Zhuyin covers the Zhuyin keyboard.
• Write short emails first. A two-line reply using one or two words from your list is real practice.

If you are starting from limited reading, How to Learn to Read Chinese When You Already Speak It sets out a route that begins with the words you already know by ear.

If a certificate is required

The TOCFL tests general listening and reading rather than business Mandarin, and some employers and official processes in Taiwan make use of it. TOCFL for Employment in Taiwan covers how it is used, and Heritage Speakers and the TOCFL covers which band to sit when your listening is ahead of your reading.

Where Zhong comes in

Zhong is built around Traditional characters and Taiwan usage, with reading passages, native Taipei-accented audio and spaced-repetition review, and a placement test so you can begin above the basics. It is one way to build the reading side of work Mandarin. The heritage learner route sets out a full route.

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Related Reading

• You Speak It. Now Read It: Heritage Learner Route — A reading route for heritage learners, from placement through reading.
• Formal Chinese Messages: Email, LINE & 請假 Templates — Message structure, address terms and templates.
• TOCFL for Employment and APRC in Taiwan — How employers make use of the TOCFL.
• How to Learn to Read Chinese When You Already Speak It — A reading route for people whose listening runs ahead.