The Foreign Expert has translated an article at YWeekend disparaging the use of local dialects in the workplace:
Recently, a small, privately held enterprise in Wuhan issued a “prohibition against dialects” to its workers, stipulating that “speaking one sentence in Wuhan dialect will be penalized 10 yuan,” which immediately caused a heated debate on the Internet. Some people said everybody is a local person, so what is the problem with speaking dialects in the office? Is it worth it to make such a big deal out of it?
A fine for speaking in dialect — maybe this is actually going too far, but companies have issued this kind of ruthless scam, assuming that it is beyond bearable. Offices are full of a wide variety of dialects — it is a stage for dialects and they show in turns. It is not fashionable for workers to answer the telephone in Mandarin: companies greatly water-down their public image. Local coworkers are in dialect cliques, and the cost to outsider coworkers is that, even if they do their best, it is impossible for them to blend in… can these problems be resolved with ten yuan?
It seems that the most popular cities in China for working are only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and some others. These developed cities are full of strife and myriad young people’s dreams, and struggling workers who cannot speak Mandarin find it very difficult to find their place. But according to current trends, only being able to speak Mandarin and foreign languages is not enough to dive into the heart of the “enemy;” outsiders still must take on a “fourth language” to be able to have a clear shot — doesn’t this make things difficult for people?
Read the original YWeekend article here (Chinese).
