Negotiating salary: Responding to a job offer

🇨🇳 Salaries in China are normally quoted per month, not per year. Offers often add extras like a 13th-month bonus and housing fund contributions, so it's worth asking about those too.

💬 每 "each" still needs a counting word before most nouns: 每个人 "everyone", 每个星期 "every week". Some words skip it, like 每天 "every day" and 每年 "every year".

💬 Chinese counts in units of ten thousand, 万 (wàn), so twelve thousand is "one ten-thousand two". After 万, a lone number means thousands, which is why 一万二 is 12,000, not 10,002.

💬 No verb is needed: a time word followed by an amount works as a full sentence. You could say 每天两百 "two hundred a day" the same way.

💬 觉得 (jué de) means "to feel, to think" when giving an opinion. 怎么样 at the end asks "how is it?", so 你觉得这个怎么样？ means "What do you think of this?"

💬 希望 (xī wàng) can take a number directly, with no "for" needed. 我希望一万五 literally reads "I hope fifteen thousand."

🇨🇳 Naming your figure as a hope rather than a demand is the usual polite way to counter an offer in China.

💬 Add 可以吗？ after any proposal to ask "is that OK?", as in 明天可以吗？ "Is tomorrow OK?" To agree, just repeat 可以.

💬 In 一万五, 一 is read (yí) because it comes before the falling tone of 万 (wàn): (yí wàn wǔ). The bare 五 means 5,000, the same pattern as 一万二.

💬 有点儿 (yǒu diǎnr) + adjective means "a bit too…" and usually signals a complaint. Compare 有点儿贵 "a bit pricey" and 有点儿累 "a bit tired".

🇨🇳 This is a soft, standard pushback, not a refusal. It usually means the employer is open to meeting you somewhere in the middle.

💬 In 一万四, 一 is read (yí) before (wàn), and 四 is (sì): (yí wàn sì). Be careful not to confuse 四 (sì) with 十 (shí).

🇨🇳 Meeting in the middle like this is the typical way a salary negotiation in China wraps up.

💬 什么时候 (shén me shí hou) goes before the verb, not at the end like "when" can in English: 你什么时候来？ "When are you coming?"

💬 上班 means going to work or being at work. Its opposite is 下班 "to finish work", and the same up/down pair shows up in 上课 "start class" and 下课 "finish class".

💬 下 means "next" and 上 means "last" for weeks and months: 上个月 "last month", 下个星期 "next week". Years work differently: next year is 明年 (míng nián).

💬 Spoken dates use 号 (hào) after the number, so 十五号 is "the 15th". Written dates use 日 instead. Here 一 keeps its (yī) tone because it's a date number.

💬 Chinese dates go from big to small, month first and then day: 三月八号 "March 8th".

💬 发 (fā) means "send" for any message: 发微信 "send a WeChat message", 发短信 "send a text".

💬 In Chinese, the person comes before the action with 给: 给 + person + action, so 给您发邮件 is literally "to you send email". 会 here marks a promise about the future: "will".

🇨🇳 A formal written offer usually follows by email. Many companies will also add you on WeChat to handle the details.

💬 Unlike 很, 非常 (fēi cháng) adds real emphasis: "extremely". 非常好 means "excellent".

💬 不 stays (bù) here because 客 (kè) is a falling tone. It changes to (bú) only when the next tone is falling, giving (bú kè qi).