BEIJING: China may be the land of most opportunities now, but almost half of the new expatriates from the West want to leave less than six months after their arrival here due to adaptation problems, said a consultancy firm.

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If one is itching for work, or adventure in another country, but did not do extensive research and doing preparation work prior to relocation, then that person is either very brave, or more likely, simply reckless.

I thought I mentioned this before. Thinking that China's economy is booming, many people went to China to look for jobs, without having a clue about the situation there.

It's not just about adapting to the local culture. If you are not on an expat package, you need to get used to the lower salary they give to local grads. You also need to compete with many jobless grads there for jobs.

http://comment.straitstimes.com/show...ighlight=China

you can only do so much research. to survive in a rapidly developing and still-not-so-open country like china without speaking its language/s, or understanding its long and varied history and traditions, esp outside of the first-tier cities, you need to be extremely strong and adaptable.

Expats from the West or even the East (Japan, Singapore, Malaysia etc) will face problems in China. Crowd, hygiene, language, local languages.. even if you can speak chinese. If you live in a civilised country with rules and policies enforced very well, then it will be a real chaos.

My personal experience is, 6 months living there and make decision to leave is way too short. Sometimes it takes time and effort to see explore your own abilitiy to adapt. After some time, you will feel that if you make US$ or Euro and spend in China, you live like a king or queen.... not for too long... at least next 2-3 years will still be interesting.

Studies have shown that failure rates for global managers are as high as 70%. Global managers refer to expats working out of their own country and are not restricted to specific locations, ie from west to east, US to Europe, Japan to Spore, etc. They could also be MNC staff who are relocated/transferred to another country.

Adaptation is key for all level of gobal managers. These managers also depend highly on their family support. Some expats work overseas leaving their families behind, while others bring along their families to a strange country. For the former, the expat will miss his/her family terriblly, for the former, it would mean the whole family has to adapt and like the foreign country. Even for single expat, a new location can be terribly lonely as they leave all their friends behind. I know of a highly paid Norwegian colleague who left within a year because his wife-to-be did not like Singapore. So ultimately, what's on an expat's mind would be "is this job worth it?" I believe this is not news to headhunters and global HRs.

I now work in China with my family back in Singapore. Life was terrible in the first 6 months as it was impossible not to miss the family terribly. All Singaporeans thought that we're bilingual, come to China and you'll know how handicapped you are. It is quite impossible for a newby to enter into business discussions in mandarin, let alone making business presentations to clients in Mandarin.

For the angmohs, it is worst. They only like their western food.... to them, I think it can be much more challenging. Anyway, it is always a good and rewarding experience for Singaporeans to step out of the tiny red dot to have a look at the world outside. China is an amazing place, entirely different from Singapore. Come here and you'll know how fortunate you are to be a Singaporean!!

Re:Dr Mahati: " China is an amazing place, entirely different from Singapore. Come here and you'll know how fortunate you are to be a Singaporean!! "

Can to share some examples? Just curious.

Dr Mahati, your mandarin must be quite bad, since you feel so handicapped there.

I have worked in China and even toured parts of China. I can easily give a business presentation in mandarin and asking for directions is also a cinch for me. In fact, my accent for Mandarin is so neutral that many can't even tell that I am from Singapore.

But, the problem is that IMO, it's better if Singaporeans do not speak like the locals, because with the exception of those who work in high-class restaurants and hotels, most China nationals I encountered on the streets there tend to be friendlier to people whom they believe are foreigners. If they think you are a local(a China national), they tend to be less polite, which is the way the locals usually treat each other.

GhostRider666 & Dr.Mahati

My experience working last 6 years in China, I share both your views. Making a business presentation is easy depends on the target audience. If you do business with China governement, you will realise how difficult to make speaches or presnetation in formal chinese language. If your target audience is a group of private own company, or overseas MNC, then any "half-pass-six" chinese should well surpass and be able to communcate well.

Too bad, my chinese started very bad, my first 6 months there could not even understand their Chinese because of many local slang... just like every where with their own dialect.

However, it is great experience in China. We feel very fortunate working in Singapore because of many reasons you can name. One example is the safely and better health system in singapore. Unless your company gives you global healthcare or you have lots of money to go to private hospitals, otherwise to queue up for hours to see a doctor at the general hosiptal for less than 5 minutes is really painful.