Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It’s probably time to learn Chinese

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 51 posts

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#11

Post by KerrickStaley »

microdrum wrote: post #4

Quite bearish on learning Chinese; and bearish, too, on articles such as this one. These articles are a type. You would see similar articles in 1989 regarding Japanese. That was not a worthwhile investment for most people. Trends about a country being ‘the hot new thing’ rarely pan out. The author of this article should know: he’s the “founder of a crypto asset manager.” Meteoric national growth curves don’t continue…

Unfortunately, just because China is illiberal doesn't mean it will necessarily fail to achieve the economic and cultural dominance that the United States now enjoys.

China's system of government is arguably more engineered and less chaotic than what we have here in the US, and it has the potential to continue to guide the country on a continued upward economic trajectory. Granted, the US system provides more competition for people and ideas in government, and China's risks getting stuck on bad people or ideas.

I think the US and the rest of the West should be looking to China for ideas on how to better govern and promote economic growth. But the ideas we borrow need to be re-implemented in a democratic way instead of the authoritarian way seen in China.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#12

Post by BuckRogers »

The canary in the coal mine here is that you have to keep practicing language or you lose it.

All of that effort is admirable and intellectually interesting but if you have no one to regularly speak with when you leave China, it's not a good use of time and effort. Unless one never wants to return to their home country, or marries a native.

He's right about French. It's probably my favorite language, I lived and worked in France for some time. You will generally not be encouraged and will definitely not be welcomed as one of them, ever. It's a very pervasive attitude. I vowed to learn no more of their language. Which is not a problem, I'd have to really go out of my way to find someone I wanted to speak with anyway.

Outside of special cases, the only language that I've identified as a no brainer for an American or Brit is Spanish. Both of us have very good reasons, and plenty of people to regularly speak with. They're also very open and welcoming people, at least Latin Americans. Over the next 30 years there will be a rising power from Latin America as well, most likely Mexico. A nation that will soon overtake its mother country's GDP, and is predicted by some, including George Friedman, to be challenging the US for North American leadership by the year 2100. Mexico in particular is China's anti-matter. If anything happens to detail their progress, Mexico benefits tremendously. They've always competed to supply the US market.

Ultimately none of that matters, you still need daily interaction with a language to maintain it. It's key and for many of us, that would be difficult with Mandarin. I'm with him though on the value and interest otherwise, but long-term, thinking decades or even just years out, an inpractical choice for most native English speakers.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#13

Post by BuckRogers »

shanghaiaway wrote: post #10
_8j50 wrote: post #3

Hate to be a naysayer but I disagree. English is used in international dealings and is spoken in a very large number of countries due to the british empire's wide reach and influence compounded by americas dominance after WW2. Mandarin is a great language to learn in as much as Japanese,French and German are. Japan has long had a strong economy and exports a large number of goods,same with France and Germany except t…

50 years from now, Mandarin will be much more useful than Arabic or French, because it will be the largest market in the world. If you deal with China professionally, knowing Mandarin will be an advantage.

Markets are unifying, eg the EU, in reaction to large nations like the US and China. It's extremely unlikely in 50 years that things are as you described. A bi-polar Chinese and US world will accelerate single market pacts. These mega nations are likely spelling the end of the nation state as a useful concept, which after regional market pacts leads to world government. Trump is a last battle cry against globalism, but it can't be stopped. US and Chinese power guarantees it.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#14

Post by shanghaiaway »

BuckRogers wrote: post #13
shanghaiaway wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50 years from now, Mandarin will be much more useful than Arabic or French, because it will be the largest market in the world. If you deal with China professionally, knowing Mandarin will be an advantage.

Markets are unifying, eg the EU, in reaction to large nations like the US and China. It's extremely unlikely in 50 years that things are as you described. A bi-polar Chinese and US world will accelerate single market pacts. These mega nations are likely spelling the end of the nation state as a useful concept, which after regional market pacts leads to world government. Trump is a last battle cry against globalism, b…

China will pass the US as the largest market within five years so what I'm saying is certain to happen.

Sure, as a regular boring American 9-5er you won't need it but if you want something more from life you better learn a language and Mandarin is objectively going to be the most useful.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#16

Post by beojan »

BuckRogers wrote: post #13
shanghaiaway wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50 years from now, Mandarin will be much more useful than Arabic or French, because it will be the largest market in the world. If you deal with China professionally, knowing Mandarin will be an advantage.

Markets are unifying, eg the EU, in reaction to large nations like the US and China. It's extremely unlikely in 50 years that things are as you described. A bi-polar Chinese and US world will accelerate single market pacts. These mega nations are likely spelling the end of the nation state as a useful concept, which after regional market pacts leads to world government. Trump is a last battle cry against globalism, b…

The mega nations are an example of the end of the traditional nation state.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#17

Post by jason_slack »

KerrickStaley wrote: post #8

I disagree with this article (and I've spent 8 years learning Mandarin part-time). English is far more valuable in business and scientific contexts, and the cost of becoming proficient in Mandarin is considerable (1000s of hours before it's useful in a non-trivial way). And I expect things to remain that way within the next 100 years. Mandarin + English is not a very distinctive skillset: you're competing with millio…

I have been learning Chinese for 4 years now. I can read and write well but my speaking always sounds awkward. I traveled to Xiamen for 2 months and knowing Chinese made things a lot easier. There was still struggles because often times colloquial speech was difficult for me to understand right away and also locals didn't always understand my speaking because they weren't used to someone speaking and it not sounding correct. My friends explains that to them I am speaking jibberish if my tones aren't perfect. They aren't taking the time to step back and think about what I meant to say. I love learning Chinese. I learn something new every day.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#18

Post by votepaunchy »

shanghaiaway wrote: post #14
BuckRogers wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Markets are unifying, eg the EU, in reaction to large nations like the US and China. It's extremely unlikely in 50 years that things are as you described. A bi-polar Chinese and US world will accelerate single market pacts. These mega nations are likely spelling the end of the nation state as a useful concept, which after regional market pacts leads to world government. Trump is a last battle cry against globalism, b…

China will pass the US as the largest market within five years so what I'm saying is certain to happen. Sure, as a regular boring American 9-5er you won't need it but if you want something more from life you better learn a language and Mandarin is objectively going to be the most useful.

Within 5 years India will overtake China as the world’s most populated country, and Africa is expected to reach 4 billion by the end of the century. China’s moment is now, not 50 years from now.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#19

Post by grizzles »

I just installed Pleco but I wish there was some more app suggestions. I've dabbled in trying to learn Chinese but I've never found a great app for it.

The insight I gained from learning to speak Japanese. -> Chinese characters are hard. So I'd very much prefer a language learning system that focused entirely on spoken Chinese rather than written Chinese.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#20

Post by shanghaiaway »

votepaunchy wrote: post #18
shanghaiaway wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China will pass the US as the largest market within five years so what I'm saying is certain to happen. Sure, as a regular boring American 9-5er you won't need it but if you want something more from life you better learn a language and Mandarin is objectively going to be the most useful.

Within 5 years India will overtake China as the world’s most populated country, and Africa is expected to reach 4 billion by the end of the century. China’s moment is now, not 50 years from now.

Africa is not a country.
Post reply on HN