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Learning Mandarin: False Eastern Promise | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| kewms Senior Member United States Joined 6187 days ago 160 posts - 159 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 17 of 33 10 February 2008 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | ||
Depends on the company and the industry. Japan hasn't got much oil. Venezuela has lots. France supplies an enormous number of gourmet food products, while China supplies relatively few. Katherine 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lucy_luck Newbie Australia Joined 6133 days ago 16 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 18 of 33 10 February 2008 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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as an aside, I think learning a language can have indirect career benefits too, as well as simply allowing you to be a businessman/woman in the target country.
Australia recently voted in a new prime minister - He's a white Australian who happens to speak fluent Mandarin. During the election campaign the media made *so much* of his ability. The assumption was something like - "Hey, the guy speaks Mandarin, he *must* be a smart, right?". I don't know if the Mandarin-speaking population was impressed by his ability or not, but everyone else certainly was. Being able to speak a language perceived as difficult can only help one's career, no matter what it may be, I believe. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7041 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 19 of 33 10 February 2008 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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The bottom line is its an investment. Mandarin Chinese (or any east Asian language) makes extensive use of its classical heritage and it literally takes years to mow through it all. If you want to be decent in the language, you will have put in serious hard work. An hour a day is not enough (sorry) and as people here have mentioned, that time and effort invested into the pursuit might be better applied to other endeavors.
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| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 20 of 33 11 February 2008 at 4:01am | IP Logged | ||
Or else it's an hour a day you're not watching Survivor XI: Malaria Island. It could be a win-win situation. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| DrZero Newbie United States Joined 6313 days ago 13 posts - 14 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 21 of 33 12 February 2008 at 8:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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What people overlook when writing articles like this is that, while you may not need to speak much Manadarin in order to work in a China-oriented company or to do business in China, the ability to understand it could still be a big benefit. Otherwise Chinese people can say who-knows-what right in front of your face and you won't have a clue. If you plan to do a lot of business with China or in China, it's worth gaining at least some skill in Mandarin. You don't need to be able to read Tang poetry. You may have little reason to actually utter Mandarin. But you'll still be glad you did it.
While it's true that Chinese people will almost always try to use English with you if they know any, what they will not do is speak English to each other in front of youjust for your benefit. I would say the same thing to people who say things like, "It's not worth it to learn Dutch. Everybody in the Netherlands knows English." That may be true, but if you were working there and you went out with local friends after work, they would probably all speak Dutch and you wouldn't have much fun unless you could understand. I wouldn't advise students to study Mandarin in the hope that it will thrust them into some lucrative career, I would say that if you have an overall interest in China and would like to work there, it's a good idea to study Mandarin. I would tell people not to major in Mandarin unless they just love the language and want to go into academia/linguistics etc. If they want to business or journalism or something in China, I would say major in that field and study Mandarin part-time. But I would go easy on the Tang poetry. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| skeeterses Senior Member United States angelfire.com/games5Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6618 days ago 302 posts - 356 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Spanish | Message 22 of 33 12 February 2008 at 10:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Chung's answer makes pretty good sense. In some blog, I read a commentator remark that the people running the Chinese Sovereign Wealth Funds don't like how the American Banks are trying to look towards SWFs as another source of "dumb money."
Besides, the World of Language Learning is way too competitive for anybody to make money off language learning alone. The truth is if you know a few languages but not much else, you'll probably end up working at a tourism booth or a hotel reception desk. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| freakyqi Newbie United States Joined 6130 days ago 32 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 23 of 33 12 February 2008 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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DrZero is right.
You probably won't need to conduct your actual get-down-&-dirty business in Chinese, but if you can have some small talk like introductions, ask about family, say where you're from, and have a small clue what they're talking about when they're all speaking Chinese, it will get you VERY FAR ahead of someone who can barely say "ni hao" (hello) and does so with an awful accent. If you are even just a mid-high beginner, they'll either: #1 - genuinely think and tell you it's great that you're learning their language. They will think you actually care, and respect you a little more (which will go a long way). They will also feel better because it's not just THEM going out of their way for years to learn YOUR language, but you have put some effort into this too. or #2 - they'll not care too much but humor you and say your chinese is great (even if it really stinks) and smile and be friendlier during the introduction when you're using your chinese, even if it's fake. Either way, both are better than you seeming like a pompous idiot and not even knowing how to say hello. The better your language skills, the more likely it'll be example #1. Chinese people always smile with surprise when I speak Chinese, and some of them are genuinely pleased and helpful, and some are fake (like when they tell me they'll give me a discount because my chinese is so good. ha, yeah right) Edited by freakyqi on 12 February 2008 at 11:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Eriol Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6866 days ago 118 posts - 130 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Portuguese | Message 24 of 33 13 February 2008 at 2:51am | IP Logged | ||
I think the most important point in the article, which they unfortunately didn't elaborate much on, is that it's a waste of time and resources to teach Mandarin in secondary school. Let's face it, most of the kids probably aren't very motivated and the number of teaching hours will always be too few to really get anywhere with a difficult language. My guess would be that less than 1% of the pupils who take Mandarin Chinese as their first foreign language will actually reach a level where they have any real use for their skills. If the society in general sees benefits in having more people fluent in Chinese it's probably better to use the resources in higher education where only the students with the most aptitude and motivation will be taught. I don't know much about the British school system, so this is really just speculation on my part. But I imagine classroom language teaching in the UK suffers the same problems that it does in the rest of the world... 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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