爱尔兰都柏林大学 赖小琪
昨天收到一个在中山大学英语专业的师妹的一封邮件, 感触良多. 她是我以前高中的校友, 更凑巧的是我以前高中的英语老师也教过她, 并向她提起过我,所以我们就加了QQ认识了.
在她的邮件中, 她向我请教练习口语的方法. 然而同时,她提出的另一个问题也让我沉思良久: 她觉得中山大学英语系里的高手太多了, 让她感到很大的压力; 同时很多非英语专业的学生, 英语水平也相当高, 甚至不会比她们英语专业的学生差, 这让她感到更大的压力.
她的这些话让我想起了以前在深大的日子. 在深大读书时, 我并不是英语系的学生, 然而在经济学院的我, 却也感受到和那位师妹一样的压力. 初入大学, 虽然我不是英语系的, 然而学英语的热情却只增不减. 大一第一学期, 每天早晨我都早早起床, 迅速吃完早餐到文山湖旁读书. 当时我觉得非常惊讶: 文山湖旁到处是在晨读英语的同学! 大家都放声朗读, 有不少人还在背诵文章. 然而文山湖里读书的同学只是冰山一角, 深大热衷于英语的人不计其数. 随着时光的流逝, 我认识越来越多厉害的同学朋友, 我感到的压力就越大, 学习英语就更加疯狂, 以至于到后面认识我的人一想起我, 就会自然地想起一个单词: English. 记得今年七月本科毕业时, 我要把宿舍里的书托运回家. 当时花了一整天来整理书, 最后发现要托运回家的书一共有5箱, 其中四箱80多本是英语书. 另外没有托运回家的书中也有很大一部分是英语类的书, 包括教材. 那部分书我觉得看了很多遍或者用处不大了,所以就不想托运回去了,干脆卖掉. 看着那几箱满满的英语书, 连我自己也觉得惊讶! 我当时在想, 我为英语付的不仅仅是金钱, 还有数不尽的时间与精力. 如果我用学英语的时间与精力来学CPA, 恐怕早就考过了几次了.
突然想起自己初中刚学英语的情景. 初一时遇到了一个好老师, 在她的教导下,我的英语成绩还不错. 可能是由于当时的英语太简单了, 考试都是考课本的句子,只要你背熟了就好了. 等到初一第二学期时, 那个老师把我叫进办公室, 她叫我要买一本语法书来看. 我当时根本不知道什么叫语法, 于是我问她: “为什么要看?” 她说: “我想你在全国英语比赛中拿奖! 这样吧, 过段时间我帮你看看有没有合适的, 到时帮你买.” 我当时也就答应了. 可是后来那个老师调到别的学校去了, 由于我当时没有意识到语法的重要性, 所以也就没有去买相关的书来学. 结果, 一时的失策造成了我后面无数的挫折与弯路. 等到初二时, 由于我的语法学不好, 当时的老师也不会教, 我的英语一落千丈, 分数时好时坏. 不管我当时花多少时间, 也不管我怎么读怎么背, 我就是提高不起来. 当时真的感到很失望, 我甚至怀疑自己真的不是学习英语的料子. 当时年级里有好几个英语学得非常好的同学, 每次考试他们的分数都比我遥遥领先, 我当时真的束手无策, 陷入一种困顿中.
直到初三换了一个英语老师, 我的成绩才开始慢慢好起来. 她很会教书, 以前我很多不懂的东西经过她的讲解就立即清楚明了. 后来为了参加初三的全国中学生英语能力竞赛, 她还经常晚上叫我到她的办公室, 帮我辅导英语语法. 于是我的基础语法框架就慢慢建立起来了. 然而到比赛时, 由于我的基础并不好, 虽然后来提高了不少, 可是仍然难以应付竞赛的强度,所以最后并没能拿得国家奖, 只是拿了我们市的一等奖. 当时感到非常遗憾, 一方面觉得对不起老师对我的辛勤辅导, 另一方面觉得非常可惜, 因为我一直想拿个全国三等奖, 只要三等奖就够了. 可是终究好梦难圆.
带着那个遗憾, 我上了高中. 高中伊始, 并没有太多的语法知识, 当时的我也并没有想到高中的语法会比初中难这么多. 幸运的是, 有一天我发现一个同学桌上放了一本语法书---. 出于好奇, 我就顺手拿来翻翻. 这一翻, 可以说是把我的整个人生都翻开了全新的一页. 在书中我看到了好多我以前从来没有看过的知识点, 而且我觉得非常新奇! 于是我就向她借了那本书, 她平常也不怎么看, 于是就答应借给我了. 后来, 我就天天钻研那本书, 把一些重点难点抄到笔记本上, 最后抄了两本笔记本. 那时的状态真的可以用 “疯狂”来形容. 那本书被我翻来覆去地看了四五遍, 有不懂的就去请教老师, 每次请教完都有一种 “山重水复疑无路, 柳暗花明又一村”的感觉. 就这样一直研究, 并且做大量的练习来巩固. 大家都讨厌学习语法, 但是我却偏偏对它非常感兴趣, 真的有点不可思议. 等到高一那年学习结束时, 我已经把整个高中的语法都自学完了.
扎实的语法让我后面的英语学习如虎添翼, 我的英语成绩飞快地进步, 很快追上年级的前列. 高二那年学校组织我们参加全国高中生英语能力竞赛, 试题是高三竞赛试题. 我当时并没有想到那是高三的试题, 直到初赛开考后, 我才发现试题是高三组的. 考完后, 我觉得题目很难, 而且我才高二, 却要和高三的那些师兄师姐竞争, 所以估计进入决赛无望了. 然而等到成绩出来时, 我们高二有三个人进入了最后的决赛, 我居然是其中一个. 当时看着贴出的红榜, 我真的有一种难以置信的感觉. 然而惊喜过后, 接着就是巨大的压力. 和我同样进入决赛的两名同学的英语都比我好, 我很怕自己拿不了奖. 硬着头皮我不停地记单词不停地做题目. 谢天谢地, 最后得了个全国三等奖, 也算实现了我曾经的梦想了. 我当时已经感到很满足了, 因为我参加的是高三组的, 而且又拿了奖, 感觉没有什么遗憾的.
等到高三时, 一年一度的全国高中生英语竞赛又来了. 时隔一年, 我想检测一下自己的英语达到什么水平了. 当时我想, 一年前的高三竞赛我都可以拿三等奖了, 这次怎么也得拿个二等奖吧? 一等奖是想都不敢想的, 因为太难了, 估计整个惠州市也就那么五六个人可以拿全国一等奖. 然而命运不济, 初赛时我居然感冒了, 带着低烧进考场. 最后结果出来时, 我以一分之差与决赛无缘, 连我的英语老师也感到惋息. 当时我们班有两个人进入了决赛: 黄惠兰和林志荣. 然而我可能是前辈子修了福分, 黄惠兰居然主动和英语老师讲她要把参加决赛的资格让给我! 我承认我当时是很想参加决赛的, 可是我也不是自私的人, 我觉得我不能因此而剥夺了惠兰参赛的资格, 因为她拿奖的希望也挺大的. 于是我和她说我不能这样做, 叫她去参赛. 然而她执意要我去, 还和英语系的组长说了. 她的理由很简单: 她觉得我拿奖的希望比她更大. 最后拗不过她, 我只得带着无比感激的心情备战最后的决赛. 那一个多月备战的日子里, 我都会想起这件事, 我都会对她感到无比的感激, 直到现在, 我想起来依然心潮澎湃, 无比激动. 最后我也不付老师和同学的期望, 拿了全国一等奖, 一个我做梦也没有想到的结果! 如果没有惠兰的让位, 我想这个奖对我来讲, 将永远是一个梦. 这么好的人, 居然是我的同学, 有时想想真的感到很幸运! 所以到后面班上选惠州市最佳学生时, 虽然我是班长, 可是她的票数却比我多几票, 我也输得心安理得, 因为在胸襟与大度上, 我真的自愧不如!
现在回想起从前所走的路, 突然发现: 每一步都走得不容易, 每一步都走得不轻松, 然而每一步都有无形的力量在支持着我, 让我一路走到今天. 所以假如有一天我成功了, 除了我自身的努力外, 我更要感谢一直支持我的家人, 亲人,同学还有朋友! 我也希望我可能成为别人的精神支持和精神动力, 哪怕是一点点, 我也会感到满足, 因为我在为别人的成功添砖加瓦.
This week’s negotiation is kind of similar to that of the second week. I remember at that time I was acting as an employee, but this week I was acting as an employer. This time I was a senior manager at Computron Pharmaceuticals, a company that developed high-tech medical and surgical software applications. Our company wanted to hire a program manager to work on developing MEDWARE, a new medical applications program using SIMULINK, a complex, high-level graphics package. I was going to interview a potential candidate and negotiated with him on salary, signing bonus, moving expense and other relevant issues.
When the negotiation began, I firstly briefed the basic information about our company and the duties and responsibilities of the program manager we were going to hire. Then the candidate told me his qualification and experience in the job offered and claimed that he could fulfill the task assigned. Knowing that he was really experienced in developing the software we needed, I moved on to negotiate such issues as salary, signing bonus, etc, with him.
First of all, we put the salary on the table. I asked for his expected salary. He said that as he was very experienced in this field and totally qualified, he would like a salary of 85,000 dollars. Hearing the “sky-high” number, I rejected him immediately. The company only authorized me a salary budget ranging from 50,000 to 70,000. So it was impossible for me to promise 85,000. Then I offered him 40, 000. Definitely he would not accept it because it was far lower than the industry average salary. I did not want to offer a “proper” salary immediately because I knew the candidate would ask for more later. I intended to bring down his expected salary to a reasonable number by getting him and me to make compromise step by step. Then he proposed another number, 75,000. Again, as it was still far beyond my budget, I refused the proposal right away. Then I made another offer of 45,000. The candidate seemed discontent with it and rejected it again. At this moment, I felt an urgent need to involve other two key issues into our negotiation, signing bonus and moving expense. I told him that if he could accept 45,000 salary, I could offer him 5,000 signing bonus and the moving package covering packing, shipping, unpacking and set-up costs, which was worth 15, 000. Then he still claimed for a higher salary. He proposed to me another set of numbers: 70, 000 salary, 5000 signing bonus and moving package of packing and shipping that was worth 10,000. He said that he was worth 70,000 salary because after taking office, he could accomplish the software by February 1st, which could help us promote our new drugs into the market several months ahead of our competitors and render us an extra benefit of 80,000. He also asserted that if I could meet his requests, he could also help our company develop a web page that would otherwise cost us 30, 000 if we did it by ourselves. I knew that it was impossible for me to grant him a salary of 70,000 because it was the top of my budget. So I rejected him again. And both of us stopped negotiating for while and worked out again our next offers.
After a minute, we began negotiating again. I told him that I really appreciate what he could contribute to our company, but what he asked for was really unrealistic and far beyond our budget. If he insisted on 70, 000 salary, I thought we could not seal the deal. Also I reminded him that we still had another candidate that was also qualified for the job and would probably accept what we would give him. Hearing this, he showed an uneasy expression and I knew that he was going to shake his confidence. Again, I told him that considering his great capability, I could make a better offer: 50, 000 salary, 3,000 signing bonus and moving package covering packing and shipping which was worth 10,000. Then again, he was not satisfied with my offer. He told me that he knew the industry average salary was 50,000(I did not know whether it was true or not) and he thought he should get a higher salary because of his capability and experience. As time was running out, and because I though what he said was reasonable and more importantly, it did not go beyond my budget. So I finally gave him two choices: (1) 55,000 salary, 5000 signing bonus and moving package worth 10,000; (2)60,000 salary, no signing bonus and moving package worth 10,000. Finally, as my stand was firm and I did not want to make any compromise, he accepted my second offer. The company would pay him 130,000 totally for two years and he would help us develop the software by February 1st and develop the web page as well! Therefore, the final profits of our company for two years is 330, 000.
This negotiation activity has further consolidated what I have learnt and given me new insights into the strategies to negotiate. First of all, I again came to know that I had to know clearly my “budget”: what is the maximum that I can offer? Secondly, I should know my other alternatives and use them as my power to negotiate with the other party. In this case, our company still had another qualified candidate and we did not necessarily employ the one being interviewed then. Thirdly, when we were negotiating with the other party on multiple issues that were interrelated, we should combine them together to negotiate so that we can be more flexible in balancing the whole outcome. We can better identify which means the most to us and which means the least and then strike a balance among them to achieve maximum benefits! |
