图书序言
序
Forewords
My motivation to write this book Thirty years ago when I was in Saint Louis Law School, one day a good friend of mine asked me one question. “John, what is the difference between students in Saint Louis Law and Harvard Law?” I told him that they were in Harvard because they were more intelligent and studied harder. He said, “Not exactly, they already knew what they would do in the future when they were 12 years old when we only knew how to play baseball.” Ten years later, my friend, by his keen observation and strong persuasive power, became a very famous football agent in the U.S., building his own empire with his empty hands. As an old Chinese saying goes, “ice of three inches thick cannot be made overnight.” If you are weak in your power of persuasion, such weakness probably has lasted a long time and certainly cannot be cured overnight.
My motivation to write this book is simple, to build up the students’ ability on persuasion in speaking, debating, writing and negotiation. I have taught English speech, debate and writing in college and have worked as an international attorney for over ten years. In the past ten years, I have noticed that many students with a high English proficiency, including some from mainland China, can neither talk nor write on topics assigned as those found in ILTS and TOEFL. When I inquired further, I was informed that they had spent time and effort in high school on being trained to read and listen rather than write, not to mention to deliver a speech on certain topics. To my surprise, they have never learned how to write even in their Chinese class either. In many cases, they had great difficulty in giving opinions. Most of them have no problem with their English proficiency. English is a tool helpful in communicating with foreigners and exchanging ideas. They spent plenty of time on learning English to achieve a high English proficiency, but they have never learned how to form their opinions by observing and formulating ideas. In their process of learning, they failed to understand that English is a tool rather than their final goal in the future. As an intellectual, you have to be able to express your own thinking and opinion. Your own opinion is the first step of training in persuasive speech, debate, writing and negotiation. What is more important here is that prior to discussing your own opinion, you have to be trained on providing descriptive facts or information from your observation.
The problem on how to establish an opinion is not limited to college students but encountered by business persons as well. In the past ten years, I worked as an international attorney to help some local companies with their international disputes including overseas litigations, mediations and settlements. In a business world, power on persuasion is important. To persuade others to accept what you say, which is an opinion with a conclusion, you must take a position first. To form an opinion, facts must be carefully observed, clearly described and be further analyzed. This task is the first priority in the management of any business decision, especially in disputes. This process requires a series of logical organization. Logical organization starts from a clear description of facts resulting into a well elaborated opinion subsequent to a logical analysis. Quite unfortunately, many business persons do not have sufficient training in this field. In many occasions where business disputes are involved, people who are in charge of this responsibility cannot give a clear description of relevant facts, not to mention spotting issues with a possible proposed solution. I am not referring only to a junior level regarding customer service, but also to a senior management level on this point. I hope this book can help some students as well as business persons who need help in their writing, speaking and negotiation.
前言
我写这本书的动机
三十年前,我还在美国圣路易大学法学院读书的时候,有一天我的一个好朋友问我一个问题,「我们的学生跟哈佛法学院的学生差异在哪里?」我告诉他哈佛的学生他们比较聪明,也比较用功。他说「不完全是,哈佛的学生当他们12 岁时就知道他们将来要做什么,而我们12 岁的时候只知道怎么打棒球」。十年之后我的朋友,凭着他的敏锐观察力和说服力,变成美国非常有名的足球经纪人,空手建立了他自己的王国。就像中国的成语所说:「冰冻三尺,非一日之寒。」任何问题不是一个晚上造成的。如果你的说服力上是薄弱的,这个问题可能已经存在很久,当然也不可能在一个晚上就解决。
我写这本书的动机起因很简单,帮助学生在说话、辩论、还有谈判上建立说服的能力。我在大学里面教授英文演说、辩论、英文写作以及从事国际律师业务超过十年的时间。在过去的十年当中,我发现学生们包括一些大陆学生即使有了很好的英文能力,也很难针对特定的议题发表谈话或写作,比方像雅思或是托福的口语或是作文题目。当我进一步询问的时候,我才被告知他们在高中时花了很多时间在阅读和听力训练,而非写作,更不用谈对于特定的议题进行演说。我甚至很惊讶的发现他们也没有学过中文作文。事实上,在很多场合他们跟外国人交谈是有很大的困难,但他们绝大部分英语水平并没有问题。英文是一项帮助沟通或是交换想法的工具,学生们花了很多的时间学习英文甚至达到优异的英文能力,但是他们从来没有学过如何观察、整理想法以及形成他们自己的意见。在他们的学习过程中,他们忘记了英文只是一个工具而不是他们未来最后的目标。身为一个知识分子,你必须有你自己的想法和意见,而你自己的想法就是训练具有说服力的演说辩论和谈判的第一步。而更重要的是,在讨论你自己个人意见之前,你应该要被训练的是如何客观的描述你所观察到的事实和资讯。
如何形成一个意见?这样的问题并不限于大学生,也包括了一些商务人士。在过去的十年当中我也以国际商务律师的身分,帮助了一些当地的公司处理他们国际纠纷,包括诉讼案件、协调与和解。在商业世界,无论任何情况,说服别人是很重要的工作。要达到说服的目的,意见,其实也就是结论,必须要先建立。要建立一个意见,事实必须小心的观察以及清楚的陈述,这是处理任何商业纠纷第一件要做的事情。这需要一个逻辑的组织。逻辑的组织就是从清楚的事实描述开始,经过逻辑的分析而形成清楚解释的意见。很不幸地,许多商务人士在这方面并没有足够的训练。在许多商业纠纷的场合,负责处理纠纷的人员常常不能够对于相关事实清楚的描述,更不用找出可能的争议以及提出可能解决的办法。在这一点上,我不只是说客户服务部门的资浅阶层,也包括资深的管理阶层。我希望这本书对于写作、说话以及谈判上有所需要的学生以及商务人士,能够有所帮助。