A Study On The Workplace Language Life Of Foreign Employees In Shanghai Multinational Enterprises

As an international city,Shanghai is the first choice for multinational enterprises to lay out the industrial chain,and plays an important role in transnational trade.The multinational enterprises in Shanghai has also attracted a considerable number of expatriates to work in Shanghai,which also presents a multi-lingual and multi-cultural landscape.Studying the language life of foreign employees in the workplace,and analyzing their application,learning and study of language and scripts,language knowledge and language technology are beneficial to the introduction of foreign talents and helping Chinese enterprises go global.Based on the qualitative and quantitative analysis,this study investigated 91 foreign employees of multinational enterprises in Shanghai,studied their workplace language attitude,language practice and language management,and showed their workplace language life concretely.The conclusions were as follows:For workplace language attitude,foreign employees attach importance to the "Culture" or "Practicality" of Chinese,affirm the "Formality" and "Skill" of English,and support the freedom of language choice under the company’s multi-lingual policy,and pay attention to the work of the workplace Chinese learning.The workplace language practice includes oral and written language situations,as well as internal and external dimensions,which reflects the characteristics of bilingual but mainly English,and the use of native language in specific situations.Workplace language management includes personal language management and organized language management.Foreign employees adopt the corresponding management strategies in oral and written situations,including avoidance strategies,English-first strategies and co-workers’ mutual assistance strategies.Organized language management is mainly reflected in the rule and choice of common corporate languages,as well as through recruitment and promotion policy of language resources management.The influencing factors of foreign employees’ workplace language life mainly include macro-policy factors,market demand factors,company and individual factors.At the company level,the language choice of management,the language support strategy of human resources department,and the language attitude and language skills of the employees are the main factors.In addition,the study will also focus on the interaction and dynamic relationship between the language management of multinational corporations and foreign employees.The results show that there are some problems in the language management of mncs in Shanghai,such as limited language support and cross-cultural communication barriers.In addition,the frequency of using Chinese among foreign employees in Shanghai multinational companies is not high,and the promotion space of the status of Chinese is large.Multinational companies in Shanghai should raise awareness of language management,integrate language management into the company’s strategic planning,and take into account the specific needs of foreign employees in work communication.Depending on the macro-policy support of the enterprise training institutions or service agencies,the corporations should provide foreign staff with corresponding Chinese training support,and promote foreign staff integration into the local workplace and society.