Since October, I have been working with a company based in Singapore. They hired me as a freelancer for a Telegram instant game, and then we switched to a PC premium game for Steam. Singapore is receiving people from China, they bring their wealth there to be successful.
My teammates are from China, and different regions. I have the pleasure of working with people from a different culture. I am learning a lot, and I want to share some of my early learnings.
The first is their sense of work ethic: they consider the work as a way of contributing to society. They work a lot, also extra hours, because they must do so. Once, I said, “I am sorry, I don’t work on weekends”. I got a private message telling me “Do not work on weekends, ok, but please don’t say it.”
They see themselves as a collective, so if you say you won’t work it’s like you don’t want to support the community.
Second learning: they are very formal and polished in their way of communicating. I use Felo as a real-time translator (they have bad English) during our video meetings. Sometimes archaic expressions pop out. We are so used to the f-word in our colloquial English, we think it’s cool and friendly. Well, not for everyone.
Last, but not least, you should be very clear when something is a suggestion or is an order to execute. If you don’t specify, they will understand that’s an order. They are very vertical in this sense, and it’s hard to have straight conversations with them.
I will keep you updated with new learnings!
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