| Generally speaking, there are two kinds. The first is working people, what we now call “white-collar workers.” In general, they go to work between eight and nine o’clock, and get off work between five and six o’clock. Some work a little longer, and probably don’t get off until seven o’clock. There’s another kind, [people] we say are entrepreneurs or self-employed. They work for themselves. When they work for themselves, they might get up very early, and work straight through until very late, or their, their evenings, mornings… get up earlier, get up a little later. For example, they might get up after nine or ten in the morning, but they might be out drinking and chatting with friends, or drinking tea until 2:00 a.m. Using a cellphone, they can communicate from anywhere. Maybe they play golf during the day, or drop by somebody else’s company to look around, or take a turn around their own factory. So, basically speaking, people in Asia work longer hours. Now as for when to arrange to meet them, I think that when Asians meet, especially Chinese, they always want to eat. You don’t, [you] rarely say, “I’m going to go somewhere for a while. We’ll talk and in an hour, when we’re done talking, I’ll leave.” Usually you say, “Let’s arrange to have lunch together. Tomorrow at noon. Or are you free tonight?” If your friend already has plans to eat with someone else tonight, that’s no problem. They’ll always finish… they’ll always be done by eight or nine o’clock. So you can say, “No problem. We’ll get some coffee at 10. This Chinese Starbucks just opened wherever. Let’s go have a cup of coffee.” This isn’t a problem. Generally speaking, Chinese people always want to eat when they meet. At noon or in the evening—both work. Later works, too. | 一般来说呢分成两类啊，第一类就是上班的人，我们现在讲白领阶级啊。他们一般是从八点钟到九点钟之间去上班，然后下午呢到五点到六点钟之间呢下班。那有的工作比较久的他到大概七点钟才下班啊。那还有一种就是我们讲的这个企业家或者个体户。他自己工作，自己工作的话呢，他也许是他很早就起床，一直做做到晚上很晚，或者说他这个这个晚上早上比较早比较晚一点起床，譬如说他早上九点多十点多起床，但是呢他一直到半夜一两点还在外边呢跟这个朋友喝酒聊天喝茶，在打电话这个手机他到处在联络事情，他白天也许去打一打高尔夫球，也许去这个这个别人的公司看一看，或者到他自己的工厂去转一下。所以基本上来说呢，在亚洲呢人们工作的时间是比较长的。那什么时候跟他们约见面呢，我觉得亚洲人见面，尤其是中国人见面总是要吃饭。你没有很少说我今天去哪一个地方呢坐下我们谈，谈完一个小时我就走了，通常就是说我们约咱们中午吃饭吧，明天中午吧，或者今天晚上你有没有空？晚上如果你的朋友已经跟人家约吃饭那没有关系，他吃饭总会到八点九点总会吃完，那就是说没有关系我们十点钟我们去喝个咖啡吧，这个中国星巴克刚刚在这个哪里开，我们就去喝一下，这个都是没有问题。一般来说中国人见面总是要吃饭，中午晚上都可以，晚上以后也可以 |