When I speak about doing business in China, I make a point of telling audiences that I arrived in China in 1992 “unencumbered by any prior knowledge of the country.” As I explain, “I knew absolutely nothing about the country. I was an American Studies major at Yale, not a Chinese Studies major. I did not speak the language then; I do not speak the language now; and I can safely predict that I will never speak Chinese.”

I do this for two reasons. First, it happens to be true, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Secondly, I want to demystify China and make it more approachable for everyone. For too long, individuals who have studied China and have devoted the considerable amount of time it takes to learn the language have tended to make the country seem so mysterious, so complicated and so difficult, that it becomes an impediment for any person or company that wants to do business here.

With China emerging as the largest market for any product or service, this is not productive— everyone needs to be more engaged with China, not less. China is for everyone, and everyone needs to have the confidence that they can figure China out for themselves, personally or for their company.

Most people, when they listen to what I have to say, understand where I’m coming from and gain confidence from my comments. Every once in a while, however, someone will take exception and argue that I am treating something as important as the language in too cavalier a fashion. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I go out of my way in my book, Managing the Dragon, to explain that most of the mistakes that are made in China are made due to miscommunication. Quite simply, I don’t want to add to the confusion by speaking imperfect Chinese, and would prefer to leave accurately translating what my managers, customers and Chinese partners have to say to the professionals, the native Chinese speakers. I believe that’s the most responsible position to take.

In the interest of brevity, I could paraphrase all of the comments I made in my book about “The Language Barrier” in China, but why do that? Instead, please allow me to quote directly from Chapter 16 in Managing the Dragon:

Wouldn’t speaking the language make it that much easier for me to work in China and function as the head of ASIMCO? Sure it would. If I were proficient in Chinese, my life would be much easier–but that’s a big “if”.

What amount of effort would it take for me to get my Chinese up to a level where I could rely on it in business? The answer is, a great deal. Chinese is an extremely complicated language. You can learn it to a level that helps in daily life–directing a taxi driver, ordering in a Chinese restaurant, asking for directions–but mastering it to where you can use it in business is another story. The people I know who’ve done it have spent at least two years studying intensively.

I was 42 when I left Wall Street to set up a business in Asia, and the second career I started was making automotive components in China. That decision came with two inherent difficulties. First, I was an American Studies major at Yale and had never studied China or Chinese. Second, my first career was in finance, and I had no experience in manufacturing or in the auto industry. Because I had to learn both a new country and a new industry, I simply had no time to spend two years or more learning a new language. My value add is my knowledge of the way capital markets work, my experience gathering capital, management, and technology resources for growing companies, and the vision and broader perspective I gained from twenty years on Wall Street. It’s not my ability to speak Chinese.

Studying the language part-time isn’t a realistic option, at least not for me. It would help a bit in getting around China, but I’d never gain the level of proficiency necessary for a business context. And the idea of coming home from a busy day at work and hitting the language lesson plan isn’t terribly appealing, either.

Even if I did somehow manage to achieve proficiency, I’d still be concerned about what I might miss if I didn’t have an interpreter. Wilson [ASIMCO’s head of Sales and Marketing] speaks English as well as anybody in China. But he admitted to me that if he’s sitting in a roomful of Westerners, he only gets about seventy to eighty percent of what’s being said. How much would I miss in a comparable situation? And how much can anybody ever afford to miss? For this reason, we always do translations at our general managers meetings, even though most of our top managers speak both languages. With important information, it pays to take a bit more time and make sure that everyone understands.

I fully recognize that there is a bit of rationalization in all of this, but again, I am just being truthful. I also believe, however, that there are many misperceptions that need to be overcome.

Maybe this is all one big rationalization for not having taken the time to learn the language. That’s part of it: languages have never been my thing. But I do believe that too much emphasis is put on the language, and not enough emphasis is put on gaining a more substantive understanding of China and how it works. There’s this sense that if you don’t speak the language you can’t possibly understand China; there’s also the equally wrong notion that anybody who speaks the language does understand China. I’ve seen plenty of instances where this isn’t the case.

By no means, do I encourage others in different circumstances to follow my example. What worked for me may not work for others.

Having said all of that, I would advise any young person with a serious interest in doing business here to learn the language. Early in your career, you can devote time to doing it the right way. All three of my kids started taking Chinese in high school, continued through college, and took language courses in China. Carleen [my wife] has managed to learn enough so that she can get around pretty well. If you can do it the right way, like my kids, by all means do it. If you can’t, but you still want to learn it for your own personal gratification, like Carleen, then by all means go ahead if that’s important to you. But don’t let the language present your first insurmountable hurdle to getting started here. Strictly in terms of business, my advice is to spend the time learning how China works and leave the language to the linguists.