Featured: Dr. Suarez Visits China
November '04
In November 2004, I traveled to Tianjin, China, to lecture to a group of Chinese executives enrolled
in a University of Maryland MBA program. When I mentioned to friends and colleagues that I was lecturing in China, almost without exception they asked me if I spoke Chinese or Mandarin. Would there be interpreters? Would they be wearing headsets while I lectured? How much would probably be lost in translation? Some simply assumed that the language 
barrier would make both the attendees and myself miserable. “For how long will you lecture?” they asked. “Two days.” A quiet groan. It will seem like forever, they cautioned, but they wished me luck.
I was one of a number of faculty members traveling to China as part of a corporate executive program being offered for the first time to a company that manufactures a hardware product that is and will continue to be in enormous demand throughout China. This company has no serious competition. The executives just want to be better at what they do and believe that education is the way to accomplish that.
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