Chinese for business: four rooms, not 80 phrases

It covers study order if your job is a fair, a supplier, or a twenty-minute meeting. It does not cover contracts, simultaneous interpreting, or an MBA in Chinese.

Do not clone this page with business phrases: that page gives lines with pinyin. The twelve-dialogue article gives reusable turns. Here you only decide which room to rehearse this week.

The Foreign Service Institute places Mandarin near 2,200 classroom hours for professional working proficiency (FSI page). That number is not office Chinese in 8 weeks. Use it to kill the ad, not to delay 很高兴认识您 (hěn gāoxìng rènshi nín, pleased to meet you).

Chinese Trainer is not a fair interpreter and not a dictionary like Pleco. HSK 1–2 can start free, with daily limits. The AI tutor does not replace a native speaker at the table.

HSK 1–2 (about 150 and 300 words cumulative) reaches the counter: 谢谢, 请坐 (qǐng zuò, please sit), 多少钱. It does not hold 计划 (jìhuà, plan) or a postponement.

HSK 3, about 600 words in the six-level frame, is the first honest floor for a rehearsed table. HSK 4, about 1,200, is the first booklet that describes talking across a wide range of topics. That is still not fluency. The map is in what HSK level is conversational.

Do not wait for HSK 5 to say Tuesday. 星期二 (xīngqī'èr) already sits in HSK 1. The expensive error is mixing HSK 5 reading with the first call to a supplier.

Teaching note: if you can greet and cannot say 我们再考虑一下 (wǒmen zài kǎolǜ yíxià, we will think it over), do not level up. Change rooms. The floor is HSK 3–4, not a loose business deck.

Reception: 您好 (nín hǎo), 我是…公司的 (wǒ shì… gōngsī de, I am from … company), 请问…在吗？ (qǐngwèn… zài ma, is … in?). Use 您. 嗨 sounds like a group chat, not a lobby.

Table: 我们先介绍一下 (wǒmen xiān jièshào yíxià, let's introduce ourselves first). 这个可以吗？ (zhège kěyǐ ma, does this work?). 我们再考虑一下 buys time without a bad close.

WeChat or email: 收到 (shōudào, received). 请发文件 (qǐng fā wénjiàn, please send the file). 附件 (fùjiàn, attachment). If you cannot say those three, do not open an advanced business deck.

Money and deadline: 报价 (bàojià, quote). 什么时候交货？ (shénme shíhou jiāo huò, when do you deliver?). 发票 (fāpiào, official invoice). 发票 here is a B2B errand, not the restaurant bill: that lives in restaurant phrases.

The method is one room per study block. It is not memorising eighty lines and hoping the right one appears in the lobby. Record this week's room. If the tone on 司 (sī, in 公司) drops, do not add lexicon.

Days 1–4: introduction with 您, company name, title. Record yourself. If the tone on 司 drops, do not add new lexicon. 很高兴认识您 is said standing up, not while reading your phone.

Days 5–8: numbers, dates, and 交货. A 6-turn mini dialogue: greeting, seat, price, date, 再考虑, goodbye. Inventory: business phrases.

Days 9–11: 收到 / 附件 / 确认 (quèrèn, confirm) in writing. Copy a real email of yours and cut it to those three pieces. Do not translate the whole Spanish or English paragraph.

Days 12–14: an 8-minute role-play. If you use the AI tutor, ask for correction of those lines, not a chatbot tour of Shanghai. Premium covers model cost; free and standard have a daily cap.

If the fair is in ten days and 您好 is still unstable, cut: reception and invoice. Leave the wide table for the next week. FSI does not ask for 2,200 hours before the stand. It asks you not to sell eight weeks as fluency.

您 is the polite pronoun. It marks professional distance. 你 is fine with a colleague your age after two coffees. In the first meeting, 你 can sound blunt even if the gloss is you.

Teaching note: say 您好 when you enter and 谢谢您 when you leave. Do not mix 嗨 and 您 in the same turn. A Chinese ear hears the jump before your slide deck does.

Do not calque we agree word for word. 我同意 (wǒ tóngyì) closes. 没问题 (méi wèntí) is more casual. 可以 (kěyǐ) sometimes only means feasible, not a contract.

买 (mǎi, to buy) and 卖 (mài, to sell) still betray a flat tone. At a stand it shows more than in an app. Practice the pair the same day as the price.

WeChat (微信, Wēixìn) is the written room. 收到 closes the loop. 好的 (hǎo de) is soft; 没问题 is more colloquial. For a new supplier, 收到 plus 请发文件 is enough.

Do not write a calqued paragraph. Three pieces: acknowledgement, file request, date. 请明天发附件 (qǐng míngtiān fā fùjiàn, please send the attachment tomorrow) is one sentence, not an essay.

发票 at a fair or factory is fapiao, the tax invoice. Asking for 发票 in a restaurant is another dialogue and another URL. If your company does not need it, do not spend the money room on it.

If you mix 交货 with 买单 (mǎidān, the bill), you are mixing travel and work. Split the paths: Chinese for travel is a hotel desk, not a quote.

A flat tone on 买 / 卖 is not cured by an 80-sticker deck. It is cured by saying the pair the same day as 报价. If the stand hears 卖 when you meant 买, the price is already wrong.

Reading your phone in reception is not a vocabulary miss. It is a room miss. 您好 and the company name have to come from memory. The PDF does not enter the lobby.

Translating a long email into Chinese word for word produces 的 的 的 and a confused supplier. Cut it to 收到, file, date. If you need legal nuance, do not improvise it on WeChat: use your language and a native speaker.

Jumping to HSK 5 because the fair booklet looks dense mixes exam reading with the first call. The table floor is still HSK 3 and, if the topic opens, HSK 4.

FSI and its 2,200 hours (Wikipedia FSI) describe professional working proficiency. They do not describe 您好. Do not wait for that number to rehearse reception.

You introduce company and title with 您, without reading your phone.

You ask or give a delivery date and a round price. You understand 太贵了 (tài guì le, too expensive) and do not freeze.

You write 收到 plus a file request. You do not need a 200-word email.

If that is red, do not open HSK 5 to go faster. Open HSK 3 and business phrases. If the official paper is the goal, switch cases: HSK prep.

Twelve minutes, a hallway, phone in the pocket. The drill is not reading a PDF. It is leaving one room and entering another saying 您好 and the company name.

Minutes 1–4: standing, 您好, 我是…公司的, title. If the tone on 司 drops, repeat the block. Do not add 很高兴认识您 until the tone holds for two takes.

Minutes 5–8: 请问…在吗？ and wait. Silence is part of the room. Anyone who fills the silence with 嗨 already left reception.

您 is the polite pronoun. 你 does not appear in this block. Teaching note: 谢谢您 on the way out closes. Bare 谢谢 sounds like a shop counter, not a lobby.

Minutes 9–12: one recorded take. Listen for 公司. If the tone fails, tomorrow's job is the same take, not an 80-sticker deck.

Chinese Trainer does not replace this hallway. The SRS queue for HSK 3 holds the room. If you use the AI tutor, correct those three lines. It does not order a coffee in the lobby.

The post-fair error is opening HSK 5 because a booklet looked dense. The floor is still HSK 3 and, if the topic opened, HSK 4.

Keep three real WeChats. Cut each to 收到, file, date. If a thread needs legal nuance, do not improvise: go back to your language and a native speaker.

The wide table waits until 我们再考虑一下 comes out unread. Until then, reception and invoice. FSI and its 2,200 hours (Wikipedia FSI) describe professional working proficiency. They do not describe the Tuesday after the stand.

Teaching note: 买 and 卖 still get practiced the same day as 报价, also after the fair. A flat tone in a follow-up WeChat is just as expensive.

A 20-minute block: level queue, one short email, three sentences said out loud. HSK 1–2 can start free, with limits. We do not promise a closed order.

If the goal switched to the official paper, switch cases: HSK prep. Do not mix chinesetest.cn with the WeChat room in the same week.

SRS queue at the level that holds the room (usually 3, not a loose business deck). Listening from the same block. Three sentences said out loud.

The tutor, once you have a small set. It is not a fair interpreter. AI answers can be wrong: check numbers and names with a native speaker or with the written email.

This site is not a test center. Dates and seats: chinesetest.cn. The framework sits with CLEC. Chinese Trainer is an indie product. It does not guarantee a pass or a closed order.