6 Television Dramas to Learn Chinese for Business

When adult learners study general Chinese, they are rarely presented with vocabularies used in professional contexts. Instead, they will learn words and phrases for general conversation. However, using industry specific vocabularies is common during conversations among working adults. Thus, watching television dramas that show conversation in Chinese workplaces will be very helpful in propelling your Chinese language skills for business. Below we have selected six Chinese drama series of modern China that contain useful dialogues for work circumstances, some can be watched on Viki using dual subtitles for language learning. Viewers will acquire business Chinese vocabularies used in various professional contexts, such as in legal, marketing, human resources, international relations, international business, and information technology. In addition, viewers can also observe business Chinese etiquette through the dramas.

Medalist Lawyer Heir 继承人

Industry: Legal

The drama revolves around family inheritance and all the main characters work as inheritance lawyers. The theme of the story is narrow and repetitive so you will hear the same words repeated throughout the series, which makes this drama an excellent choice to learn new vocabularies in the legal sector. Click here to watch the trailer.

The First Half of My Life 我的前半生

Industry: Market Research

The drama depicts the life of five adults who work in the market research field. Most of the story revolves around the leading actress’ divorced life as a single mother and her return to the work force. There are some scenes that depict the characters’ working life in the office, so you will get to learn some useful workplace language.

Game of Hunting 猎场

Industry: Human Resources

The drama revolves around the working life of headhunting professionals. There is heavy use of business world phrases and jargons on industry scenes, but the drama also contains love stories so you will come across conversations on relationships as well. Tip: You can start on the fifth episode as the first four centre on the lead character’s personal life. Click here to watch the trailer.

Ode to Joy 欢乐颂

Industry: Business

The drama tells the story of five career women living in Shanghai, each working in different professions: a chief executive, a senior HR executive, an entrepreneur in the building sector, a coffee retailer, and a translator. You will come across some general business conversations, negotiations, e-commerce vocabularies and useful phrases to talk about life in modern China, including designer brands and online shopping.

The Interpreter 亲爱的翻译官

Industry: Interpreting & Translation; International Relations

The drama focuses on the life of official Chinese translators and interpreters. The majority of the scenes are about the life of the trainees and how they translate French passages into the Chinese language and vice versa. The drama also contains a few business scenes in the wine industry and some conversations about wine as the leading character is a wine aficionado.

Love O2O 微微一笑很倾城

Industry: Computer Gaming

The drama is about a group of college students in the faculty of computer science who participate in a popular campus online role-playing martial arts game. The main theme of the drama is the love story between the college students in the faculty. Since the story revolves around college students in the online gaming field, there is heavy use of Chinese internet buzzwords and slangs, and you can expect to learn a lot of vocabularies in the online gaming field. The story also tells the journey of these college students setting up their own online gaming start-up so you will get to learn some office relevant phrases, too.