After watching his guest power-cycle the projector in baffled dismay for five straight minutes, Wang's internal struggle to maintain composure was fast approaching breaking point. Why did every fiscal quarter end like this? Flush with enthusiasm for whatever latest management theory was trending in California, headquarters would inevitably dispatch a fresh graduate with no actual experience in the industry to lecture his battle-scarred team about their own supply chain issues. And now this?

Learning Chinese? Our lesson today falls midway between the Elementary and Intermediate levels, and we were a bit on the fence about how to classify it. The reason for this is that while our dialogue is a bit easier than most others at this level, our subject matter and vocab is more professional and stretches beyond the basics into the hinterlands of Chinglish, that hazy region on the linguistic map where the familiar can be surprisingly exotic.