When a Chinese PhD Student Meets a German Supervisor [pdf]

One of my most important suggestions to Asian (Indian and Chinese in particular) students is to expand your horizons both professionally and personally. You are going to a new country - don&#x27;t ONLY mingle around with your kind. There is a far broader experience to gain that will only help you professionally and personally in the future. There are many ways you can do it<p>* Share an apartment with someone from a different country<p>* Make acquaintances and talk to people <i>outside work</i> with diverse professions - don&#x27;t stick to scientists ONLY<p>* Try to understand difference between cultures<p>Especially once you move to a new country, you have a great opportunity to understand difference between cultures. Don&#x27;t miss it!

It&#x27;s hard to start from scratch in a language.<p>Chinese and German share virtually no roots.<p>For instance, if an English speaker started a PhD program in German, he can probably figure out some stuff since there are a lot of cognates and the writing system is similar. Sure, you&#x27;ll sound like a sedated five year old, but you can figure out where stuff is in stores and how to ask for things, and grammatically you&#x27;ll be in the same zip code.<p>Coming from Chinese, you really are starting from nothing. You&#x27;re doing a lot of memorizing, not only of vocabulary but word order.

The fallacy of sunk cost - &quot;the result of his careful consideration was that he could never give up, because he had already invested too much.&quot;<p>Ming should have quit. An instructive example is the Chinese physics PhD student who exploited the system for his own benefit, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;philip.greenspun.com&#x2F;careers&#x2F;women-in-science" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;philip.greenspun.com&#x2F;careers&#x2F;women-in-science</a>.

&gt; It seems to be a norm for Chinese students to “report only the good news but not the bad news” when they talk to their supervisors, as reporting bad news could be seen as complaining. In Germany, reporting bad news is as important as reporting good ones.<p>Yup, I&#x27;ve seen this.

Are there good resources for learning how to culturally communicate with customers from different cultures? Even reddit groups where we can participate. I am not talking about speaking multiple languages but being multicultural.<p>Since 2003, I have been working directly with customers from more than 30 countries but there are cases when I am stuck at the project requirements phase in an already sold service. For example, I am talking with a customer in Malaysia to do something that seems almost impossible because of regulatory issues. He understands the difficulty but it seems like he cannot engage in a logical discussion about this and definitely change his idea. In a way he respects me but thinks I can do some magic to overcome regulatory issues with software only. If I were talking with a typical American customer he would realize that the problem doesn&#x27;t have a solution earlier on and would try to reformulate the requirements. BTW, any recommendation will be helpful!

I find it kind of funny that a guide for Chinese and German academics is written in Chinese and English. Is there even a German translation of this, or did the authors just assume that German academics are all proficient in English anyways?

Also a very cool read for a Swiss guy (Zurich) who moved to Beijing :D.

Any mirrors?

It is mentioned in the first line that this is the second book in the series. Anybody knows where I can find the first book?

The language of this book looks like it is targeted to a mid-school teenager. Not sure about German students, but I would expect someone with masters degree to know a lot more than this. At least a guy should be familiar with German history&#x2F;culture&#x2F;philosophy&#x2F;literature.

May we assume that the Chinese side (how Chinese students get funded to go to Germany, etc) applies pretty well to Chinese students at other nations&#x27; universities as well?

I am also a foreigner living in Konstanz, Germany. I&#x27;ve been here for the last 10 years and i can tell you out of experience the people around the Bodensee area (lake Constance) have a complete different mentality compared to those living in larger cities like Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Köln or even Berlin.<p>-One thing i know works very well in Germany is that you need to learn their language and culture. Try to understand how these people think and why they think like that. That will make your life easier.<p>-As foreigners we also want meet and mingle with our own kind. And that&#x27;s okey because it&#x27;s the best way to beat homesick. However, sometimes it&#x27;s also recommendable to mingle with other foreigners from other countries. Find out what works for them. At the university for example, you could find such English speaking people like the Americans, UK citizens and even established Africans living and working in that area.<p>-Also, thankfully there are &#x27;meetups&#x27; nowadays. You are able to meet and connect with local and international people with different professional backgrounds