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People assume that Chinese for work is a harder version of Chinese for life. Mostly it is not. It is a different vocabulary — narrow, extremely repetitive, and largely absent from general courses because it is nobody's idea of everyday conversation. The words are not difficult. They are simply words you have not been taught: , , , , .
The good news is that the set is small and it recurs constantly. A few hundred items will carry you through most of a working week.
One caveat. Chinese workplaces differ enormously — a state-owned enterprise, a private technology firm and the Chinese office of a foreign company do not share a culture, and the observations below about tone and indirectness are tendencies, not rules. Watch what your own colleagues actually do and copy that.
How people are addressed
This is the first thing you will get wrong, and it is worth getting right on day one, because it happens every time you open your mouth.
Colleagues are usually addressed by surname plus title, not by given name. (Wáng zǒng) for a general manager — is short for (zǒngjīnglǐ). (Lǐ jīnglǐ) for a manager. (Chén gōng) for an engineer, from (gōngchéngshī). (Zhāng lǎoshī) in academic and training contexts, and rather more widely than English speakers expect.
Among peers you will hear and attached to surnames — , — which are warm and informal. Wait until they are used about you before using them yourself.
The people around you: (tóngshì, colleague), (lǐngdǎo, the leadership, your superiors, used as both a plural and a way of referring to a specific boss), (lǎobǎn, boss, informal), (kèhù, client), (gōngyìngshāng, supplier), (zhùlǐ, assistant), (shíxíshēng, intern).
The departments: (rénlì zīyuánbù) or the shorter (rénshìbù) for HR, (cáiwùbù) finance, (shìchǎngbù) marketing, (xiāoshòubù) sales, (jìshùbù) technical, (cǎigòu) procurement, (xíngzhèng) administration, (kèfú) customer service.
Introducing yourself
- ，，。Nín hǎo, wǒ xìng Lǐ, jiào Lǐ Míng.
- ，。Wǒ shì shìchǎngbù de, fùzé hǎiwài kèhù. — I'm in marketing, responsible for overseas clients.
- 。Zhè shì wǒ de míngpiàn. — Business cards are offered and received with both hands, (shuāngshǒu); take a moment to actually read a card you are handed rather than pocketing it immediately.
- 。Yǐhòu qǐng duō guānzhào. — A formulaic and slightly formal way of saying you look forward to working together.
- 。Xìnghuì. — Pleased to meet you; formal, used in first business meetings.
The single most useful pattern here is …… (wǒ fùzé..., I am responsible for...). (fùzé) will appear in every meeting you ever attend.
Meetings
The vocabulary first: (kāihuì, to hold or attend a meeting — note it is a verb-object compound, so "attend two meetings" is ), (huìyì, meeting as a noun), (huìyìshì, meeting room), (yìchéng, agenda), (huìyì jìyào, minutes), (huìbào, to report upwards), (tǎolùn, discuss), (quèrèn, confirm), (ānpái, arrange), (gēnjìn, follow up), (luòshí, put into effect), (fǎnkuì, feedback), (duìjiē, to liaise or interface with a counterpart).
The sentences that let you participate rather than watch:
- ？？Huìyì jǐ diǎn kāishǐ? Zài jǐ lóu?
- 。Jīntiān zhǔyào tǎolùn sān ge wèntí.
- 。Wǒ bǔchōng yìdiǎn. — Let me add one thing. This is the natural way to enter a discussion.
- ，。Bù hǎoyìsi, dǎduàn yíxià. — Sorry to interrupt.
- 。Wǒ yǒu yí ge wèntí.
- 。Zhège wǒ xūyào zài quèrèn yíxià. — I need to check that. Learn this one early; it is the professional alternative to guessing.
- 。Wǒ yǒu bùtóng de kànfǎ. — I see it differently. Softer and more usable than a direct .
- ？Zhè jiàn shì shéi fùzé? — Who owns this?
- ？Shénme shíhou zhīqián yào? — By when do you need it?
- 。Huì hòu wǒmen zài duì yíxià. — Let's align after the meeting.
Two expressions deserve a warning. (wǒ jǐnliàng, I'll do my best) and (zàishuō ba, let's talk about it later) are frequently soft refusals rather than commitments, as is (yǒudiǎn nán, it's a bit difficult). Whether they are depends on the person and the company, but if you hear them and then hear nothing further, you have probably received an answer.
Email and messages
Much internal communication happens on (Wēixìn) in work groups ( wēixìn qún), which is fast and informal. Email — (yóujiàn) — is used for anything with a record, an attachment or an external recipient.
An internal message is short and formulaic. Open with the person's name and title: ，： Then the body. Then one of the standard closings.
- 。Jiàn fùjiàn. — See attached. (fùjiàn) is the attachment.
- 。Qǐng cháshōu. — Please find enclosed / please check receipt. The standard line when sending a file.
- 。Máfan nín bāngmáng kàn yíxià. — Could you take a look, please.
- ，。Rú yǒu wèntí, qǐng suíshí liánxì wǒ. — If there are any questions, contact me any time.
- ，。Shōudào, xièxie. — Received, thank you. This is the most-typed sentence in Chinese office life and you should be able to produce it in your sleep.
- ，。Hǎo de, wǒ mǎshàng chǔlǐ. — Fine, I'll deal with it right away.
- 。Qǐng zhīxī. — Please be informed. Formal, common in circulated notices.
For a formal external letter, the closing formula is (shùn sòng shāngqí), roughly "with best wishes for your business", followed by your name, department and telephone number.
And one word that has no clean English equivalent and is used constantly: (xīnkǔ le). Said to someone who has just put in effort — finished a task, come back from a trip, worked late — it acknowledges the trouble they took. It is not thanks exactly, and it is warmer than most direct translations suggest.
The working day
(shàngbān) and (xiàbān) for starting and finishing work; (dǎkǎ) to clock in; (jiābān) overtime; (chūchāi) a business trip; (qǐngjià) to request leave; (niánjià) annual leave; (tiáoxiū) time off in lieu; (gōngzī) salary; (hétong) contract; (shìyòngqī) probation period; (zhuǎnzhèng) to be confirmed in a permanent post; (bàoxiāo) to claim expenses; (fāpiào) the official receipt without which nothing can be claimed.
- ，。Xià zhōu wǒ chūchāi, qù Shànghǎi.
- ？Zhège fèiyòng kěyǐ bàoxiāo ma?
- 。Wǒ xiǎng qǐng yì tiān jià.
The repair kit for work
Everything above assumes you followed the conversation. These are for when you did not, and they are more useful than any amount of extra vocabulary:
- ，，？Bù hǎoyìsi, wǒ méi tīngdǒng, nín néng zài shuō yí biàn ma?
- ？Zhège cí shì shénme yìsi?
- ，…… Wǒ yòng Zhōngwén shuō kěnéng bú tài zhǔnquè, wǒ xiǎng shuō de shì... — I may not put this precisely in Chinese; what I mean is...
- ，。Wǒ xiān jì xiàlai, huítóu quèrèn yíxià. — Let me note that down and confirm later.
- ？Kěyǐ fā wǒ wénzì ma? — Could you send that in writing? Genuinely the most efficient sentence in this article: it converts a listening problem into a reading problem, and your reading is better than your listening.
Building the rest yourself
The generic vocabulary above gets you into the room. What gets you through the meeting is the thirty to fifty words specific to what your company actually does, and nobody can supply those for you.
Do this: take a real document from your work — a report, a slide deck, a specification — and extract every term you would need to say aloud. Get a colleague to check the list, because half of them will have a fixed collocation you would never have guessed. Store them as phrases rather than words, and rehearse the five sentences you personally say most often until they arrive without assembly.
That is a weekend of work, and it will do more for your working Chinese than a month of general study.
About this article
- Author
- Omar Benjelloun
- Version
- 1
- Published
- April 6, 2026
- Last verified
- Not recorded on this article
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