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From David Moser:

I attended an all-day series of talks today at an academic institution. Some of the panels were in Chinese, some in English. One that I found particularly interesting was an afternoon panel with the CEOs of several Chinese companies. The panel was supposed to be in Chinese, but I found it hilarious that all of these participants, steeped as they are in American and Western culture and business, seemingly can no longer speak pure Chinese. It is simply impossible for them. Some of the panelists could hardly speak even one sentence without throwing in an English word or two. I started writing down some of their code-switching, but it was so ubiquitous I soon stopped even trying. Here are some examples:

Note: Transcriptions and translations added by VHM (words originally in English are bolded).

Wǒmen gōngsī zuìjìn celebrated wǒmen de 16th birthday. 我们公司最近 celebrated 我们的 16th birthday. ("Our company recently celebrated our 16th birthday.")

Xiǎo Liú, wǒ wonder nǐ néng bùnéng yùcè zhège market trend rúhé? 小刘，我 wonder 你能不能预测这个 market trend 如何？("Liu, I wonder if you can predict what this market trend will be like?")

Nǐ yào shàngkè, bìxū dé shàng nàxiē kěyǐ get involved de dōngxī. 你要上课，必须得上那些可以 get involved 的东西。("If you want to take the class, you have to get those things that will enable you to get involved.")

Nǐ zuì hǎo hái shì enjoy zhège guòchéng. 你最好还是 enjoy 这个过程。("It would be best if you enjoy this process.")

Zhème zuò, wǒ zhēnshi chū yú passion cái xíng. Dàn zhège passion de definition shì shá? 这么做，我真是出于 passion 才行。但这个 passion 的 definition 是啥? ("In so doing, it won't work unless I'm really doing it out of passion. But what is the definition of this passion?")

Zhège particular Zhōngguó market shì fēicháng fragmented, dàn nà bubble hòulái busted zhīhòu, wǒmen kěyǐ reconsider wǒmen de options. 这个 particular 中国 market 是非常 fragmented, 但那 bubble 后来 busted 之后，我们可以 reconsider 我们的 options. ("This particular Chinese market is extremely fragmented, but after the bubble busted, we can reconsider our options")

Tāmen cóng blood lǐmiàn jiù yǒu business de DNA, tāmen jiùsuàn natural innovators. 他们从 blood 里面就有 business 的 DNA, 他们就算 natural innovators. ("They have business DNA in their blood; they can be considered as natural innovators.")

Wǒ juédé Zhōngguórén bǐ Měiguórén yǒu gèng duō de desire. 我觉得中国人比美国人有更多的 desire. ("I think that Chinese people have more desire than Americans.")

Zhāng xiānshēng shì bùshì juédé yǒudiǎn bèi left out zàiwài, wǒ jiànyì nǐ cānyù jìnqù jiù huì live up to tā gāngcái shuō de zhíyuán dì nà zhǒng expectations. 张先生是不是觉得有点被 left out在外, 我建议你参与进去就会 live up to 她刚才说的职员的那种 expectations. ("If Mr. Zhang is feeling a bit left out and marginalized, I suggest that, should you get involved, you'll live up to the expectations for staff members that she mentioned just now.")

Wǒ yào jiǎng yīgè personal experience, nǐ kěyǐ believe it or not. 我要讲一个 personal experience, 你可以 believe it or not. ("I'd like to tell a personal experience, and you can believe it or not.")

Méiyǒu, wǒ just kidding, dàn bùfáng tell you the truth… 没有，我 just kidding, 但不妨 tell you the truth… ("No, I'm just kidding, but there's no harm to tell you the truth…")

And this delightful misunderstanding:

A: Zhè shì wèishéme yǒurén shuō wǒmen Zhōngguórén shì the Jews of the Orient. A: 这是为什么有人说我们中国人是 the Jews of the Orient. ("A: This is why some people say we Chinese are the Jews of the Orient.")

B: The juice of the Orient? Dōngfāng de chéngzhī?? B: The juice of the Orient? 东方的橙汁？？ ("B: The juice of the Orient? Oriental orange juice?")

And on and on. These poor Chinese business elites literally can no longer speak like normal people. This kind of linguistic mixing is incredibly common in China, as we all know, but I've never experienced such an orgy of code-switching in my life.

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