Mandarin Mashup July 8, 2012

• SA-based Chinese Language and Cultural Advice is helping two-way trade - Adelaidenow

  

  Leonie McKeon is the owner/managing director of Chinese Language & Cultural Advice. Picture: Bianca De Marchi. Source: The Advertiser

  LEONIE McKeon plays an increasingly important role in Australia's business success in China.

  As the owner of Chinese Language and Cultural Advice, she trains people around Australia in the ways of doing business with the greater China region.

  Ms McKeon's business is one of the largest private teachers of Mandarin in Australia, helping hundreds of people to learn the language each year, but she insists that cultural awareness is just as critical to business success in Asia.

  Apart from doing business in China, with Chinese people increasingly buying Australian mines, farms and wineries, the ability to speak Mandarin has many advantages.

  "It is very important because it teaches people how the Chinese think and behave," she said. "It can mean the difference between a good solid relationship with your client and not understanding your client."
  

  
  Ms McKeon said her company has helped countless companies achieve greater business success in China through a better understanding of people and culture.

  "We're really just at the start of this whole relationship with China and how much business can expand is really up to us, but most businesses can do something in China," she said.

  "It is important that people do the hard yards and learn about the culture and the people they are dealing with.

  "The more language and culture you understand, the more you can take risks with China."

  While her company's primary role is teaching Mandarin language and cultural awareness, its practical advice to help people and companies do business in China includes communication styles, negotiating, working with Chinese people, induction of staff, marketing and strategies.

  After living in the Greater China Region for several years, her practical hands-on experience provides a unique platform to help Australians understand Chinese language and culture, along with the knowledge and experience of her six Chinese employees.

  Ms McKeon studied Mandarin and anthropology at the University of Adelaide before winning an entrepreneurial scholarship which enabled her to start Chinese Language and Cultural Advice in 1998.

  "I saw a need for a practical, user-friendly Mandarin course and a need to teach people how Chinese people think," she said.

  "When I started not that many Australian companies were thinking about China, but because I got into it early I've been able to write all the material for the courses and grow with the market."

  Ms McKeon said her business has grown enormously in the past two financial years with further significant growth expected this year.

  In future Ms McKeon would like to roll out her Mandarin language course throughout Australian schools where teaching of the language is ineffective for people from a non-Chinese speaking background, she said.

  "They have a problem and I have a solution because we've d! eveloped our course over many years with great success," she said.

  "We need to teach young people Mandarin because much of our future lies in Asia and it is spoken in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia.

  "If we want to embrace our potential in China we have to learn the language and culture and that means teaching our young people at school."

  For more details please see www.clca.com.au