应对自如的协调能力

[Pedroski]

李小姐应聘。

 

男的：李小姐，你认为一个合格的秘书应该具备哪些素质？

李小姐：要有丰富的专业知识、端庄的举止、应对自如的协调能力。

 

协调 = coordinate, harmonize, negotiation （ I see 不协调 can mean 'incongruous')

应对自如的协调能力 = 'respond easily coordinate ability' or 'respond easily negotiate ability'

 

Personally, I think she means something like 'the ability to respond quickly and easily (自如） to any situation' but that doesn't seem to fit the Chinese words.

 

Any tips out there please?

[陳德聰]

What are you doing with the 的? Many of your problems seem to have you misunderstanding or misinterpreting the 的, whereas here you appear to just be completely ignoring it.

 

EDIT: Also are you sure it's not "应付自如"?

 

EDIT EDIT: Actually I'm pretty sure it must be 应付自如 because 应"对"自如的协调能力 doesn't make sense to me at all.

[Pedroski]

Definitely 应对， spoken and written.

 

Maybe they got the wrong 的 Could it be 地？？

[ZhangJiang]

应对自如 are often used together meaning to respond and deal with problems with ease. 应对自如的协调能力 is "the coordinate ability to deal with problems easily" which may not be natural English but quite good written/formal Chinese to me.

[陳德聰]

Hm... I know 应对如流 and 应付自如 but I'd never seen 应对自如 before... I guess this is one of those 渺无人烟 vs 杳无人烟 type issues.

 

But beside that point, it's definitely 的 and not 地. The part that follows 的 is very clearly a noun phrase, and 地 (de) goes before verbs. What kind of 协调能力? 应对自如的 协调能力.

 

协调能力 the ability to coordinate / coordination

So what kind of coordination? 应对自如的coordination

[Tiana]

Given the tendency to have "variations" in almost every word or phrase in Chinese,  I think 应对 and 应付 can be considered as synonyms in this case.

[ZhangJiang]

Yes 应付and 应对 basically mean the same thing, but somehow 应对自如 sounds more professional than 应付自如. Maybe it's because 应对 is more active and 应付 is just passively dealing with problems. It could be a new expression if not everyone has heard of it.

[陳德聰]

To me 应对 involves a more reactive approach to the problem than 应付 but I dunno, I think even 应付自如 is "new" as far as being this century, so I would imagine 应对自如 is just a tweak to reach a more nuanced meaning. Though on a personal level I think 应付自如 sounds more effortless than 应对自如... Which is what I'd want out of an employee's 协调能力 but that's just me.

[Pedroski]

Thanks, 'more reactive'  is a good guess. The next thing 李小姐 said was '我认为最重要的是勤奋、积极的工作态度。

 

Gf came over said 'What's the problem ‘应对’ means 'handle, deal with and makes a phrase with '自如‘ ’应对自如‘ 'deal with easily'

 

leaves '协调’ which I would say here is 'organizational'.

 

要有丰富的专业知识、端庄的举止、应对自如的协调能力。

A qualified secretary should have a lot of specialized knowledge, a dignified appearance and the ability to handle organizational matters easily.

我认为最重要的是勤奋、积极的工作态度。

I believe the most important thing is a hardworking, proactive attitude to work.

 

I can't bend this 应对自如的协调能力 into 'adjective 的 noun ‘ format in English, just can't do it. All I can say is 能力 is a noun. So much for ’的‘

 

Would you agree with the translation?