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It’s probably time to learn Chinese

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Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#21

Post by _8j50 »

beojan wrote: post #16
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…

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

They're empires. They're end of nations in as much as empires were. Even if a country ends,a nation persists (look at Jewish and Roma people as an example). A nation ends if the people intermix ad intermarry with others.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#22

Post by rococode »

whoisjuan wrote: post #9

Everyone knows that Chinese is hard. "Hard" is of course subjective, but I think everyone can objectively say that English is easier than Chinese. In fact, easier than most languages. For that very reason, Chinese doesn't have the potential or practicality to become a default language.

I think the best example of Chinese being "hard" is that a huge number of Chinese-Americans who have spoken Chinese almost daily from childhood can converse fluently but rarely read/write above a middle school level. With many other languages there isn't such a huge difference in required knowledge between being able to speak/listen and being able to read/write.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#23

Post by treebeard901 »

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.

Look at everyone so confident in their future predictions

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#24

Post by yesenadam »

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.

Mandarin is objectively going to be the most useful

I'm not sure what you mean by this. It's the language with the most speakers, maybe? It's the one you think would give the greatest money-making advantage? There are many other ways you could decide which is most useful, e.g. language spoken in the most countries, but 'objectively most useful' depends on a lot of unmentioned things (Useful for what?) and seems a fairly meaningless phrase to me.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#25

Post by iforgotpassword »

conanbatt wrote: post #5
_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…

Only that mandarin may open up a world of 1.2 billion people, a whole universe to explore. The case with japanese is a great one tho! Japan is way more advanced and still a huge place to learn about, and although it has less population, its way more relatable and maybe even more practical.

> Only that mandarin may open up a world of 1.2 billion people, a whole universe to explore.

Just that they're all from the same country mostly. Going by raw numbers isn't a good metric here. Something like "number of countries or cultures where you can communicate with the average person using that language" would be a better fit, and this is where English will probably still be king for a long time.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#26

Post by iforgotpassword »

whoisjuan wrote: post #9

Everyone knows that Chinese is hard. "Hard" is of course subjective, but I think everyone can objectively say that English is easier than Chinese. In fact, easier than most languages. For that very reason, Chinese doesn't have the potential or practicality to become a default language.

For reading and writing I agree, but just the language itself definitely not. At least not objectively, but how do you define that anyways?

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#27

Post by mikestew »

Just like bell bottoms, this little nugget from the Seventies is back, I see. Same arguments, too, almost point-for-point. “Most speakers”, “large emerging market”, yada, yada. Just like the 70s, if you’re trying to sell Coke in China, might want to learn some Mandarin. OTOH, if you’re selling Coke in Greece...

Of course, things have changed over the years, but if anything they’ve changed toward a much more homogeneous world and I argue that learning any form of Chinese to be potentially less useful than forty years ago. If you don’t do business in China, what need is there to learn Chinese? And if you do business there, well duh, you might want to learn some of the local language like you would anywhere else.

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#28

Post by jklepatch »

I have been living in Asia for 8years and I have learned Chinese. Initially because i thought it would help me to thrive professionally in Asia.

I am happy I learned Chinese, however I wished I had done it for the right reasons. i.e to do something intellectually interesting.

Professionally, your time is way better invested in learning a tech skill, developing a business or expanding your network. Those are the thing that you can leverage.

Chinese language abilities? Not so much. Apart from the exaggerated congratulations of chinese speakers after they hear you speaking 2 words of Chinese, it wont provide you much business wise. Remember that if for any position chinese language is important, they will just hire a local, never a foreigner...

Re: It’s probably time to learn Chinese

#30

Post by KerrickStaley »

jason_slack wrote: post #17
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…

Download Pimsleur's Mandarin III and spend time going through that. Pay close attention to how you sound vs how the recorded speaker sounds.
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