“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" - Lao Tzu
Studying anything has many advantages and languages are no different. There are personal and professional advantages to be derived from studying them. Right now in the world, Chinese is moving itself into a position to be the dominant language and cultural force for the 21st century. So it follows that learning Chinese just makes sense because it will change your life. But what specially can be gained from knowing how to communicate with these people?
Chinese is now considered as an important language worldwide because of its increase in presence in the business world. Chinese are involved in many businesses throughout the world including Hollywood. So, if you want to increase opportunities in the business world, you must learn Chinese. Here, I would like to mention that the previous American President Barack Obama has picked up Chinese. Even Mark Zukerberg from Facebook also learned Chinese as his second language.
For most people whose native language is English, learning a language is not only difficult and time – consuming, but often not worth the time and effort because ‘Everyone speaks English’. Having some knowledge about Chinese Language and culture, I can tell you that everyone does not speak English, furthermore have no reason to learn it, we, on the other hand, the remaining 5.8 billion people on the planet certainly do have several good reasons why we should learn Chinese.
China is the most populous country in the world with over 1.4 billion people. Mandarin Chinese is spoken by almost one billion people. It is the most widely spoken language in the world. One out of five people in the world is Chinese. Mandarin is spoken in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, The Philippines and Mongolia. Not only will that, knowing Chinese also allow student to compete effectively in the business environment of the future. According to data China is one of the America’s largest trading partners. Many American companies do business in China including Motorola, Coca Cola and Ford. For your future knowing Chinese may be an edge when competing for a job. The demand is sky rocketing. We also know that China is playing a major role in world affairs and will continue to do. For students, studying Chinese will develop an appreciation for Chinese culture and history. Today’s main target of all schools is to develop critical and creative thinking ability of students. So we know that learning more language develops more critical and creative thinking skills for students.
Now I am going to shed some light on the most commonly cited reasons for studying Chinese.
- Chinese is the most widely spoken and fastest growing language in the world:
I know literally every blog post you find about learning Chinese will have this as the first reason to learn Chinese. But rightly so, if you’re going to learn another language, why not make it the one that almost ¼ of the world already speaks! Ok, so you be thinking I’m never going to China, but you might go to Singapore or Taiwan where Chinese is also widely spoken. Not only that, but Chinese folk are living all over the world: in Canada, Australia and USA to name few. In many states in the USA, people learn Spanish because of the high population of Spanish speakers; wouldn’t it be nice to speak to your Chinese neighbours……? Not to mention students, statistics show that Chinese students make up 19.8% of all international students studying in the UK. And whilst they may be in the UK to practice their English, a Ni Hao or XieXie once in a while might make them feel a little more at home….
Chinese is now also being taught in many schools in different country like USA, UK and even Nepal also because chances are those kids will need to speak it (even just a little) in the future.
The truth is, Chinese is becoming more popular, not meaning to brag but I know this from looking at written Chinese, and the amount of people who every single das ask ‘please teach me to speak/read/write Chinese’ “how can I learn Chinese?” “Where do I start?”
- To be able to travel in China without any problem:
It’s a fact that the Mandarin language is spoken in a lot of areas. From Beijing to Singapore, there are many people who use this language. So, if you want to make your journey entertaining you must learn this language. On top of that, by learning their language, it would be easier for you to communicate with the locals.
One of the things that happens to travels when they reached in China is they become pickier when it comes to food. Because they have very little spoken Chinese, let alone read it them unless they are with someone who could read or speak Chinese. They ended up painting at pictures, or worse, not going to restaurants, they know they can’t order at. There are many places in China where people do speak English if you choose to experience the ‘real’ China, there probably won’t be. Even in a big city like Shenzhen, there are many people who can’t speak English apart from ‘Hello’ and look Missy’. I’m not criticizing anyone, on the other hand anyone who can speak English will probably be beyond themselves with excitement and help you any way they can. Just don’t expect it, it all I’m saying and learn the basics at least.
- To understand Chinese culture and history:
I honestly believe that in order to fully understand Chinese culture and history you need to learn Chinese, I’m not suggesting that you need to be able to read the works of Confucius, but there are just some things when spoken in English makes absolutely no sense and leave your feeling more confused and unsatisfied than before. Once you get to grip with even the basics of written Chinese you will begin to make connections and comprehend more about Chinese society and mentality. You’ll understand another culture’s point of view.
Another thing which can attract you towards learning Chinese is that it is a very ancient culture. By learning this language in depth, it will help you a lot in learning and delving into the most ancient literature.
- Chinese is quickly becoming the language of business:
There are more and more business not only having their products made in Chinese factories but also marketing towards the Chinese market. Recently a group of entrepreneurs began to make their unicycles there, and are confident that their products will sell well here. There is a mass of foreigners in Shenzhen alone looking to import and sometimes export products to and from China and it’s a lucrative business, especially as we’re so close to China.
Chinese are travelling abroad more often, especially to Australia, USA, Japan and Thailand. If you work in tourism, it’s definitely work speaking a little Chinese to accommodate the big spenders.
Another thing about learning Chinese is that is very useful in business. If you are doing business with Chinese people and you are unable to understand Chinese then it would be impossible for you to understand the deal without translators. If you can understand and converse in Chinese, there would be significant chance to make this deal successful.
- It’s good exercise for your brain:
Studies suggest that learning Chinese utilizes areas of the brain that learning other language does not. As there are many differences between learning Chinese compared with English such as tones and characters. It is said that learning Chinese takes more brain power! Whereas English speakers only use the left temporal lobe, speakers of mandarin use both. If you choose to learn written Chinese, learning to write characters can help with motor skills and visual recognition will keep the mind sharp. Bilingual people, in general, are also said to be better at prioritizing and multitasking than monolingual people.
So if you want to keep your brain on the ball, be a math’s genius (Chinese children have a great understanding of math than English speaking children) or keep yourself organized, Chinese is the language for you!
- It’s a cool, interesting language:
The more time I spend learning Chinese, the more intrigued and enthralled I become, I’m making more and more connections when learning new characters, I realize that a certain characters is used in many different bigrams (two characters that make a word) or when you can guess the meaning of a character just by looking at the radicals and when the penny drops it’s just utterly amazing! I’m not the only one who feels this way-more and more people are learning Chinese just for fun. Literally for their own enjoyment and honestly I can’t blame them. It’s challenging and sometimes writing the same characters 100 times makes you feel crazy, but if you keep going you’ll soon realize that this is an awesome language. Look at the characters who goodness sake! Some of them are pictures, but also a word. My mind is blown.
- Economically important:
One of the most important reasons to learn Chinese as second language is that it is very important in terms of the economic factors. Look at the countries who use Chinese as their language, they include Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, it will be so much easier to gain access to this big share of business if you can converse in Chinese.
It’s fair to say that more and more foreigners are learning Chinese looking to find work as a teacher or to start their own business. Whilst learning Chinese is not essential for teaching, it would probably benefit your relationships with colleagues and the parents of your students (If you keep their kid happy, the parents will love you forever, or at least until you leave for another job anyway). If you’re serious about learning Chinese and take a risk exam this will definitely something you can put on your resume for the future. As Chinese business such as electronic goods, textiles and petrochemicals expand more into the west china aims to turn around the term ‘Made in China’ into a more positive ideal and working alongside the Chinese to achieve these goals will be imperative in almost every industry.
Finally, the Chinese are getting richer and it is estimated that 600 million people will reach the middle class in the not so distant future. This middle class represents the largest single consumer base with a significant amount of money to spend anywhere in the world. All those people who are too lazy to learn Chinese are going to need me or someone like me to communicate with these customer. This means learning Chinese pressers a job opportunity for anyone with the where withal to invest the time and effort into learning this beautiful language. But Chinese is not a language people casually learn casually learn and reach a certain level of fluency by simply going to regular school. It requires dedication and passion. If you’re not sure, you’ll probably end up wasting your time and don’t need to learn Chinese to visit China for short trips or vacations. Because some places offer English services, especially in bigger cities.
Damodar Kandel
BBS 2nd Year