Talking business, in both Turkish and Chinese

Sadi Kaymaz knows that money talks, and it has a lot to say in both his host country, China, and his homeland, Turkey.

And as an economic reporter for both countries, the 30-year-old often speaks on its behalf - and does so both in Turkish and Chinese.

The economics correspondent for Turkey's DHA News Agency monitors China's macroeconomics, finance, business and stock markets. He also writes about both countries' economics as a special correspondent for China Economic Net.

Kaymaz will soon begin a column on the major Chinese news portal, providing analysis of Turkey's economics. And he already writes a regular column on Chinese economics for his homeland's news agency.

"I'm very glad to be such a bridge, reporting to both sides to increase the mutual understanding between Turkish and Chinese," he says.

Kaymaz also translates some Turkish multimedia news into Chinese for Tudou.com, one of China's largest video websites. Snippets include a cow breastfeeding lambs and Turkey's latest musical fads.

"The biggest barrier for most foreigners in China is language, including me," he says.

It was only after four years' study of Chinese that he began to take joy in learning the language, and also started making more local friends. He met his Chinese wife, Wei Yaning, at Tsinghua University, where Wei was pursuing a master's degree in Chinese.

But he says his language proficiency results from his own efforts, rather than from his wife's.

"I learn Chinese by myself, mainly through reading news," he says.

He developed an intensive plan to read firsthand Chinese economics sources with the goal of improving his ability to read, write and speak about the field's sub-areas.

He spent 10 hours a day for the first 20 days reading only about the country's macroeconomics. The next 20 days were devoted to reading about finance, and for the following 20, he delved into the stock market.

The six-month reading regiment proved extraordinarily fruitful, enabling him to master many useful jargons and relevant proper nouns.

"It is interesting that my wife is losing money on stocks, while I read stock news every day. Maybe I should play the market instead," he says, jokingly.

He says he reads and watches Chinese economic news from 7:30 am until midnight. He then posts his analyses about the latest hot-button issues, such as increasing inflation, on his three-year-old Turkish-language blog, dragonomi.

Kaymaz's blog has many regular followers, including scholars, stock market players and businesspeople. It receives 10,000 unique visitors and 60,000 clicks a month. He also regularly posts on Twitter, the world's biggest micro-blogging site.

His interest in China began when he was studying international relations in 2000.

"Seeing is believing. So I came to China after graduation in 2005," he says.

Because he prepared himself well, he says, he never felt any culture shock and has also found Beijing to be a very international metropolis.

His first job in China was writing reports for a business consultancy in the capital, which provided him the opportunity to travel throughout the country.

Kaymaz's understanding of its economy deepened as he visited many major manufacturing cities, such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Shenzhen.

He believes the two-year stint laid the foundation upon which he could build his economics correspondent career.

And his experience with family life in the country also helped him gain a deeper understanding of the country's culture.

Kaymaz recalls feeling exhausted after his first time observing the complex tradition of visiting relatives during Spring Festival. And he also had a difficult time drinking potent baijiu (Chinese liquor), which is unlike anything he'd had before. But by now, he is happy to down a few glasses with his male relatives.

After spending half a decade in the country, he says he is happy with all facets of his life and feels fortunate to be able to write about China's economic miracle.

"People in the remote Turkish villages can buy everything made in China, with a much cheaper price compared with years ago," he says.

"I am very proud to be inside the miracle as an eyewitness."

China Daily

(China Daily 10/09/2010 page11)