Decoding China ─ A Handbook for Traveling, Studying, And Working in Today's China

Do you want to know the unspoken conversations around you when visiting other countries? Are you someone who likes to travel on your own terms—from finding that special restaurant to negotiating a better price for a prized antique in a local flea market? If so, Decoding China is the hands-on communication guide for you!

Decoding China will teach you the basic "rules of the road" on how to operate in Chinese culture. Like every country, China has its own unique set of cultural "codes," ways of behaving on a daily basis that all Chinese automatically know. These codes frame every personal interaction in China. By learning to recognize these key words and phrases—and use them correctly—everything you do in China will go a lot more smoothly.

In practical chapters organized by topic, Dr. Christensen shows you how to get things done in China, even with very minimal knowledge of the language. Make your China experience work for, rather than against you with Decoding China.

Dr. Matthew B. Christensen is the Academic Director of the Chinese Flagship Center at Brigham Young University, where he is also a Professor of Chinese in the Department of Asian & Near Eastern Languages. The Flagship program is a partnership among the federal government, education, and business which helps graduates take their place among the next generation of global professionals. His focus on the usefulness of cultural codes results from his frequent observations in China of students' difficulties when they try—and fail!—to use U.S. cultural codes there.