In many large companies, once you join the company, you have to give it an English name. In the early days, this habit was popular among foreign companies. This is easy to understand. Chinese people choose English names to make it easier to interact with their foreign bosses. However, later on, the same was true for authentic Chinese companies like Tencent, with English names from top to bottom: Pony, Tony, Danniel, etc. So some people think that this is vanity, worshiping foreigners, pretending to be high-end and foreign. Similarly, in a company like Alibaba, everyone must have a fancy name after joining the company. At first, they were names from martial arts novels, such as Feng Qingyang and Xiaoyaozi. Later, as Alibaba Company grew bigger, there were not enough names in martial arts novels, and even names from online novels were used to make up the number.
Why do you do this? Is it just admiration for foreigners? This is just the superficial reason everyone sees, and the underlying reason is for better management.
1. Inspiration from an aviation accident
In August 1997, a Korean Air plane bound for Guam encountered a heavy rain. This pilot had flown this route many times, and heavy rain was not a big problem, so he didn't pay much attention to it.
Unfortunately, the plane crashed into a mountain near the airport. There were 254 people on board, and 228 people were killed.
A subsequent investigation found that the main responsibility lay with the captain. He was very tired that day and made a series of wrong decisions. More importantly, other crew members discovered the problem and alerted the captain. But here comes the point. The tone of their reminder was very tactful, almost a hint.
South Korea is a country with a strong sense of power and hierarchy. In their cultural tradition, co-pilots and mechanics will never speak in a direct and blunt tone to their superior - the captain - as it is considered rude.
Under normal circumstances, it may not be difficult for the captain to hear the voice-over of his subordinates. But at that time, the captain was very tired and the situation was very urgent. He failed to hear the real information in the euphemistic tone of his subordinates and failed to correct the error in time, which ultimately led to a catastrophe.
We Chinese understand this kind of euphemism very well. For example, one historical record records that during World War II, the relationship between Stilwell, the American general sent to China, and Chiang Kai-shek was very tense. One of the reasons is that Stilwell felt that Chiang Kai-shek didn't mean what he said. He told Chiang Kai-shek about anything, and Chiang Kai-shek agreed, but afterwards he refused to do anything. Stilwell got angry and went to find him. Chiang Kai-shek said, "When I said yes, I meant that I understood, not that I agreed." This is a Chinese euphemism that sounds unreasonable to Westerners.
After this serious accident, Korean Air learned from the experience and determined to make radical changes. They invited American experts to formulate targeted measures. One of the most important measures is to require all crew members to use English at work.
Two Koreans speaking English together does seem a bit weird and artificial. But only in this way can the ubiquitous hierarchical consciousness in language be completely eliminated. Moreover, English is the universal language in the world's aviation industry, and communication between flight crews and airport tower controllers must be in English anyway. This can minimize misunderstandings.
Language is the carrier of culture, and Korean culture has a strong sense of hierarchy, which will be reflected in all aspects of grammar, word choice, tone, and address. This is difficult to break through because human thinking cannot be separated from language.
So Korean Air simply uses another language, which is also a shortcut to achieve equal communication.
2. Inspiration from German companies
Among the major languages, English is characterized by a strong sense of equality, so this is also the reason why English has been used for hundreds of years. Reasons why it is widely used in business activities.
In 1998, the German car company Daimler-Benz merged with the American car company Chrysler. This merger was originally dominated by German companies, but the new company after the merger uses English as its working language.
Moreover, this is not an isolated case. Large companies such as Siemens, Volkswagen, Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Chemie AG and Deutsche Commerzbank all use English as their working language.
I once asked a German friend why English should be used as the working language?
He said with some embarrassment that the German words to boost morale and call for progress were basically overused by Hitler. As soon as these words are said in German, everyone feels weird and has all kinds of bad associations. So I had to switch to English, otherwise the company wouldn't even be able to hold a morale-boosting meeting.
There must be other reasons why Germans speak English at work, such as being more adaptable to the international market, expressing business vocabulary more accurately, etc. But German and English represent different cultural characters, which is certainly one of the important reasons.
3. The reasons why Chinese companies use English names or fancy names
The most important reason is to increase the sense of identification with the company. The name is the deepest self-identity. If the name is changed, the self-identity will change. But a more important reason is that there is no need to call each other a certain boss or a certain brother, but directly call each other by their English or fancy names, which improves communication efficiency and creates an equal and free communication atmosphere.
The first step in building an organization is to complete this cultural transformation.