Should Your Child Be Learning Mandarin?

Reports in the NY Times and elsewhere point to the rise of Chinese language instruction in our schools, against the backdrop of the demise of language learning in general. People justify this rush to Chinese by referring to the growth of the Chinese economy. The US government has declared Chinese a “critical language.” How realistic is this Chinese boom, and will it last? Here is a reality check.

1) Chinese will probably not help your kid get a job.

Chinese is being touted as the language of the future, given the growth of the Chinese economy. Some predict that a knowledge of Chinese will be big advantage in the job markets of the future. It is worthwhile remembering that Chinese is the language of business in only one country, China. Relatively few American kids are going to be working in China after graduating.

2) Chinese is not an international language and unlikely to become one.

Almost all Chinese speakers are in one country. Chinese is not an international language. It is not used widely by speakers of third languages. It is unlikely that this will change in the short term because Chinese is very difficult to learn, for most people.

3) Chinese is difficult.

Chinese has no vocabulary in common with English, unlike Spanish, where over the half the words are similar to English words. Most kids in the US who study Spanish do not learn to speak. English speaking school kids in Canada have had similarly poor results with their French studies. It is likely that kids who study Mandarin in schools will have even more difficulty.

4) Learning the Chinese writing system is time consuming.

To write Chinese requires the learning of several thousand characters. Each character consists of up to 15 or more strokes. Chinese children are surrounded by the written language from early childhood. Our kids would have devote an immense amount of time to this task. There is already a fundamental problem with literacy in English in our schools. Learning to write Chinese would be a major distraction for most school children.

5) There is little chance to use Chinese.

While there are around 40 – 50 million Spanish speakers in the US, there are only 2 million Chinese speakers. However, most of these Chinese speakers speak Cantonese, so students studying Mandarin would not have many native speakers to practice with, even assuming that some would learn to speak.

6) The rush to Chinese is being pushed by the Chinese government.

The Chinese government has a major program to promote Chinese language studies around the world and appears willing to pay for teachers and for trips to China for school administrators. This represents an opportunity to establish Chinese language programs in certain schools, no doubt. Is it advisable, however, for school curricula to be determined by the promotional activities of foreign governments?

7) Learning Mandarin makes sense for other reasons.

There are excellent reasons to offer Mandarin, as an option, in our schools, without the hype and without making it a “critical language”. For much of the last 4,000 years of history about 20% of humanity has been Chinese. Chinese culture has had an important influence on the course of history. The number of schools in the US offering Chinese has grown from 1% to 4% from 1997 to 2008. This is hardly surprising and is, in fact, largely overdue. Mandarin language instruction should be offered, and looked upon from a longer term educational perspective, and not as a sudden reaction to recent Chinese economic growth.

Steve Kaufmann is a former Canadian diplomat, and President of KP Wood Ltd. He is also the founder and CEO of LingQ.com. Steve speaks eleven languages and maintains a blog on language learning. He wrote the book The Linguist, A Language Learning Odyssey.

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http://www.30daysatatime.com Dave @ 30 Days at a Time

I see the validity of your argument, but here are some alternative lines of thinking on a few of your points:

On Chinese not being useful for getting a job and not being an international language – The effects of globalization are sure to increase in the coming decades, and while it is unlikely that American children will ever be working in China, the liklihood of Americans interacting with native Chinese people is high. While many more Chinese will likely speak English than Americans will speak Chinese, there is certainly a reason to differentiate oneself by acquiring Chinese language skills, and thus having unfiltered access to the Chinese market.

On the difficulty of Chinese and its writing system – For one, there is no need to learn Chinese characters, as spoken Chinese would be far more valuable. Additionally, using pinyin or other romanizations of Chinese would be fine replacements for written Chinese characters. The difficulty of learning Chinese could actually be the best argument for it. By learning a very different language, children can literally reprogram their brains and will have much more success learning other skills as well.

Now, I am no Chinese fanatic. In fact, I can say about 4 things in Mandarin, so I’m not even speaking from experience. However, given that there is little opportunity to use many languages that are currently taught, and all language learning can be difficult, it makes sense to give more consideration to a language that is spoken by so many people and is likely to play a larger role in the business in the future.

PS – Love LingQ, am using it to learn Spanish.
- http://www.77successtraits.com Mark Foo – 77 Success Traits
  
  “there is no need to learn Chinese characters, as spoken Chinese would be far more valuable.” This is kinda weird. It’s learning how to speak without learning how to read or write. Although you can, that’s not the correct way to learn any language. If you seriously want to pick up a language, you should learn how to speak and write.
  
  Cheers~
  
  Mark
  - http://www.30daysatatime.com Dave @ 30 Days at a Time
    
    I learned to speak English without learning to read or write. I only learned those skills years later. I don’t see why the same process couldn’t be effective again.
http://www.77successtraits.com Mark Foo – 77 Success Traits

“Each character consists of up to 15 or more strokes.” This is probably true for the traditional characters. The simplified characters usually consist of fewer strokes. Traditional characters are only used in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Cheers~

Mark
- http://www.lingq.com Steve
  
  Mark, How many strokes in the simplified character for “I”, 我. It seems to me that it is about 13. I learned traditional characters first and then the simplified and really did not find that they simplified things a lot. I agree it is worthwhile learning the characters.
  - http://www.77successtraits.com Mark Foo – 77 Success Traits
    
    Hi Steve,
    
    Mark, How many strokes in the simplified character for “I”, 我. It seems to me that it is about 13. I learned traditional characters first and then the simplified and really did not find that they simplified things a lot. I agree it is worthwhile learning the characters.
    
    There are 7 strokes for the character “I” 我. Personally, I do find simplified characters are easier on the eyes. Well, maybe that’s because I learned simplified Chinese in school and am used to it. I only learned how to read traditional Chinese when I started reading Hong Kong comics when I was in high school.
    
    Cheers~
    
    Mark
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Inge

I live in Indonesia. Learning Chinese is actually one of the best things that I did. It has helped me to find a job with higher salary.

In my experience, learning to speak is definitely more useful than learning to read/write. If you only want to learn how to speak, you can just learn the pinyin or romanizations.

Although I said that learning to speak was more useful, I found that being able to read/write had their advantages. The Chinese characters have the same meaning regardless of what Chinese dialects you speak. If you meet someone who speaks only cantonese, you can still communicate through writing. Chinese characters are not easy to learn but once you get the hang of it, it’s not that hard. You can use various memorization techniques to learn the characters.

learn and grow,
Inge
- http://www.lingq.com Steve
  
  In Indonesia I can see it. In the US I would want my kids to learn Spanish. But the choice should be up to them.
  - Bonita Tong
    
    Mandarin is and will be the most important language in the world not matter you like the idea or not, it is the fact. Although, English is a widely spoken language, majority of Chinese people speak their native language hence, the proficiency of mandarin Chinese will be of great advantage for business aspirants in Chinese market.
    
    In UK, just in five years, the number of non-Chinese people learning Mandarin Chinese has soared to 35 million. Not sure about in US or Canada… however I believe that encourage your child to learn mandarin will be certainly the best gift to them.
stl mom

My daughter just made her middle school language choice. Her first choice was Spanish (she’s already started studying Spanish in elementary school) and her second choice was Latin (she’s fascinated by ancient Rome).
Her other options were German and French. Nice languages, some great literature, but I’m not sure how useful these languages are, in either the U.S. or in the world.
Amy

Sorry, I disagree with this. THe US government hasn’t declared Mandarin a critical language just because China has a big economy. It’s a national-security/intelligence issue. We don’t have a lot of Mandarin speakers in the government who can listen in on traffic. THe Chinese government is famous for economic espionage, and there are definitely Chinese spies in the US. We need intelligence and counter-intelligence professionals who are fluent in Mandarin. We also need State Department employees who can speak it. Maybe it won’t help you get a job in business, but it will definitely help you get a job in government– just pick a 3 letter agency.
- http://www.lingq.com Steve
  
  Relatively few people are going to work in counter-intelligence.
http://www.uncertainchange.com Tomas Stonkus

Very interesting points.

I really liked what Amy had to say. However, that being said, I do not think that my kids are going to learning Chinese unless I want to live there.

I agree with all of the reasons that you listed above. English is easy to learn and most likely it will stay the business language for decades to come. I am not really too worried about that.

If I were to have my kids speak two languages, I would probably pick Spanish, which is much more applicable.
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Oak

1) Nobody knows what the Chinese economy will do. It might overtake the US, and then Chinese Would be of benefit. Knowing Any foreign language is a benefit when searching for jobs as it enables you to work in more countries.

2) Chinese is only used in one country. One country that is already an economic superpower, and has over a billion speakers. Your same logic would work for Japanese and Korean, and plenty of people do really well from learning those.

3) Learning difficult things never did anyone any good. If it’s difficult, why bother? It’s precisely because it has no common words that it broadens the mind to different concepts. And also gives you a head-start in learning Korean and Japanese.

4) The children with fundamental literacy problems are not the ones who are going to be forced to learn a new language. Learning any foreign language is time-consuming.

5) Surprisingly enough, it is possible these days to talk with people Outside the US, using things like “the internet”, which make geographical proximity less relevant.

6 & 7) I agree with you on this.
- http://www.lingq.com Steve
  
  I am not saying kids should not have the chance to learn Chinese if they want. I just think that hype is overdone.
  
  I lived and worked in Japan in the 70s and 80s and only a few of the people who learned Japanese were able to find satisfactory work using that skill. That is why it is better to learn a language for the culture and enjoyment and not in the hope that it will lead to a job. It likely will not.
  
  Most kids studying Spanish do not end up speaking. In Mandarin the results will be even poorer. But it all depends on motivation. That is why it is important to encourage choice in language learning.
  
  I think all kids should be encouraged to learn languages. Literacy problems are far more widespread than you suggest. Kids should be encouraged to read, and first of all in their own language. For the average kid, buckling down to learning characters is a distraction in my view, unless they are really motivated.
  
  Yes you can talk on the internet, but again this would be an exceptional situation, whereas Spanish is everywhere in the US.
http://richardshelmerdine.com/blog/ Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com

I tried learning Mandarin for a while in University but gave up. It’s really difficult (but doable) I can’t see it ecoming a commonly used language any time soon.
Jeff

I can only agree with point 7. Not just for Mandarin, but for any language.

Knowing a foreign language is no guarantee of getting a better job with a higher salary. Even if you have other skills and experience that the knowledge of whatever language complement. And how do you know you (or your kids) will be able to learn a language to the level of proficiency to use it professionally?
http://bystander.homestead.com Hsiaoshuang

Based on my personal life as a Chinese in Singapore, I fully agree with the author on his reasons not to learn Chinese.

My father was born and educated in old China (before the Red Army took over in 1949). He read and wrote Chinese well but spoke only Hakka, one of the many hundreds of speech groups in the country (Mandarin is a foreign speech to most Chinese).

He came to Singapore in the 1930s, married and raised a family. When I was growing up in Chinatown in the 1950s, almost all my cousins and other relatives studied in Chinese schools. But my father insisted I go to an English language school because English was the medium used in government, commerce and all official transactions in Singapore and Malaya.

So I grew up knowing less Chinese than an average American. In Singapore today, the government insists every Chinese must study Chinese up to the level of being able to read the newspaper and write a letter, and to hold an intelligent discussion in Mandarin. Millions of dollars have been spent on this but till today, most Singapore Chinese know only a smattering of the language.

I have worked in many different jobs — army, factory admin, HR, newspaper reporter, Web manager — since 1970, and not once was there a need for me to write a single Chinese word or to speak in Mandarin. At home I use either English, Cantonese or Hakka. Mandarin is used only to sing tuneless karaoke songs.

Americans shouldn’t waste their time learning Chinese — the only benefit is perhaps to read Chinese novels in the original. Anyway, there are already hundreds of excellent English translations of Chinese works and classics. And to know old China, its customs, traditions and history, read the English books written by Dr Lin Yutang in the 1930s and 1940s on China, such as Wisdom of China and My Country and My People.

Red China today is the most polluted environment in the world, with an amoral government willing to shoot its own students and young people in Tiananmen Square and jail anyone who talks too loudly. Why on earth would anyone want to go to that toxic country?

By the way, the word for “I” in Chinese has only 7 strokes (in response to one of the comments).
menacel

3) Learning difficult things never did anyone any good.
@Steve: How many strokes in the simplified character for “I”, 我.
There is only 7 buddy.

@Oak:If it’s difficult, why bother? It’s precisely because it has no common words that it broadens the mind to different concepts. And also gives you a head-start in learning Korean and Japanese.

What kind of argument is that? Walking was hard, learning to read was hard, learning how to make computers, and play instruments is hard, but people have done and still do all of that. There are theories that don’t even cross our minds on a daily basis but people still research them. Is your mindset that immature?
http://www.lingq.com Steve

menacel buddy,

I admit that it has been over 40 years since I wrote characters by hand. At that time I had to pass the British Foreign Exam and translate newspaper editorials in to Chinese and write Diplomatic Notes. I can still read and use a word processor, but writing is a skill that you lose quickly if you do not maintain it.

The point remains. “I” in English or yo, io, я, etc. are simple versus “The Mandarin Chinese character 我 (wǒ) shows a hand (手) holding a spear (戈). The hand radical 手 (shǒu) is used here in the form of 扌, a character which is always used in combination with other characters.

An early form of 我 showed two spears crossing. This evolved into its present form, a hand holding a spear, which is an undeniable symbol of ego assertion, and therefore an appropriate representation of “I; me.”

The average number of strokes of commonly used characters is still over 8 and not all characters have been simplified.

The total number of Chinese characters from past to present remains unknowable because new ones are developed all the time

The Zhonghua Zihai, records a staggering 85,568 single characters, although even this fails to list all characters known. An educated person needs 4,000 to 5,000 characters to read books and newspapers.

The following table will not work here but shows that many characters use in excess of 15 strokes.
Here is a

Search for Chinese/Japanese Characters by total strokes for the character:
Total strokes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 39 44 48 52
http://www.lingq.com Steve

As to whether kids should learn something that is inherently difficult, the issue is, to me, cost and benefit. Yes learning Chinese is a major help in learning Korean and Japanese. Yes Chinese is one of the major cultures of the world and worth learning.

On the other hand, looking at the results of Spanish and French instruction in our schools, the difficulty of Mandarin makes it likely that the results will be poorer, and the possibility of ever using it much smaller.

So, I say, make it available as an option, don’t crowd out the other languages, don’t hype it as a “must” or critical language. It is just another language. If children can learn any second language it is a good thing. Let them choose. Make more options available. Only the very motivated will learn Mandarin, or any other language.
Amy

Well, for the government, who designated it as a critical language, IT IS a critical language. Just like Pashto and Arabic are right now. It’s critical for them.

And maybe if we’re not having success with Spanish and French in schools, it’s because it’s a problem with schools NOT with learning languages. Kids are struggling to learn math these days too, I guess we should stop saying it’s important to teach calculus?

I learned more about English in French class than I ever learned in English class. I learned even more in Arabic. People told me I’d have no chance to speak those languages here, either, but seeing a Middle Eastern refugee’s face light up when I greet him Arabic is reward enough for all of the work. I’ve even seen asylees from China, so if you want to get a chance to speak a language you can. You just have to look for it.
Evelyn

um… I don’t really understand the point of this article.
It’s probably useful for non-English-speaking-people to learn English since it’s a world language.
Yes.
But that’s not the only reason, is it?
Learning languages has got an inherent value – even if it wasn’t useful in getting a deeper understanding of one’s only language. In my opinion, learning languages develops the brain.

Most Europeans learn more than one languages – and believe me, most people can actually SPEAK foreign languages, even though with sometimes a terrible accent
With good language instruction (and all the opportunities we have in our internet-connected world), it IS possible to learn foreign languages.
The earlier you start, the better.

So for whatever reasons the officials offer new language learning options – take opportunity and do pick up a language. Mandarin, Korean, Polish, Kisuaheli, it doesn’t really matter.
http://www.lingq.com Steve

The point is that the rush to Mandarin is a little overdone.

In your view, what is it about language instruction in Europe that accounts for their success compared to North America or Britain?
http://MandarinSegments.blogspot.com Greg

Very good article – and an excellent balance to many other articles which smack a little of desparation, implying that you won’t survive in The New World ™ without Mandarin.

Of course, people have different motivations for languages, and sometimes it’s “just because”, like Mandarin & me. In reality, without learning to read/write Chinese, people can get to a basic conversational level in a reasonable period of time. Nothing to be scared of.

Fluency isn’t a requirement of learning a language, and if it’s just a hobby (with generous helpings of Chinese food & Chinese culture & making Chinese friends thrown in) then it’s very satisfying.

For example, I just got off the phone after a half-hour language exchange with a friend in China that I’ve never met, but we’ve been talking for a year now – half English, half Mandarin.

A very satisfying hobby indeed.

Greg
from MandarinSegments.com
Budi

I think Indonesian Bahasa is better to learn. Indonesia is growing and also developing globally just like China. Schools in Australia have taught their students Bahasa.
Jeff

I found this quite interesting, since it challenges some unexamined notions I have. I’ve never come across someone refuting the significance of Mandarin Chinese. Everything I’ve heard hitherto has been in full support of Mandarin. So well done for this enlightening article.

Just a few minor comments (mostly objections haha) of my own.

- Point 2: I disagree. I live in Melbourne, and almost everywhere I go I hear Mandarin being spoken. Rarely will I be unable to find a Chinese speaker in my immediate surroundings.

- Point 4: I partially agree. My experience is that Chinese characters are really difficult to learn in the beginning. It was frustrating to find that I would repetitively forget how to write simple words like 动物 (Dong Wu – Animal). But akin to many other skills, characters are the most difficult at the start, and become progressively easier. Right now I am astonished at how I previously struggled to remember what I would now consider simple characters.

But trust me when I say it gets much easier after the first 200-300 characters. At that stage you start to see characters as being composed of radicals rather than individual strokes. So instead of remembering the 15 or so strokes that compose a character, you only need to remember the 3 or so radicals that compose it. Furthermore the more characters you learn, the more familiar you become with radicals (each radical is associated with a different meaning), and subsequently it becomes much easier to remember characters.

It’s like learning English, once you have learned enough words, you start to see the prefixes, suffixes, and other parts of a word, which then enable you to 1) guess the meaning an unknown word 2) remember new words with less effort.

In any case, how well one learns Chinese rains down to one’s motivation.

- Point 5: In my experience, most Cantonese speakers are also fluent in Mandarin; most of the natives I’ve come across speak Mandarin.

- About only learning spoken Chinese and not written: personally I find it much easier to remember words for future speech when I also learn its written form.

- I learn Mandarin because I find it a fun language. I get a thrill from learning new ways to express myself and being able to communicate in another language.

Take note that my view is going to be heavily biased since essentially all my relatives know Mandarin. It was a lame not being understand what my parents said to other people, so I started learning Chinese seriously in Y9.
Svend

Hi everyone.
I must say that was is said here is bullshit. I speak danish, french, english, german and chinese (mandarin), and every single language had been useful for me. The Chinese economy as well as the chinese-american economy-relations are growing very fast, and that’s why chinese mandarin is growing very fast.

Indeed, Chinese mandarin isn’t very useful to use in the streets in the states (beside chinatown), but it’s very useful is business, let me give an example: I know a businessman who needs Chinese every day, because he’s managing a factory that needs orders from China Every Single Day!! So my point is: if you have an important title in business or other branches, learn Mandarin Chinese!

The business main city must be Shanghai or Hong Kong. Hong Kong is now chinese again, so people now learn Mandarin, and not english anymore.

Chinese is the near future, English is the present, Spanish is PAST!!!!!
http://www.lingq.com Steve

Svend,
Not every opinion that you do not agree with is BS. Not everyone has the same experience or perspective as you do. Not everyone is going to by involved in buying products from China.

In my view, Chinese will never be an international language, that is a language used by speakers of other languages, as a common language of communication. Spanish and English are international languages, and so are German, Russian, Arabic, Swahili, but not Chinese. Chinese is the language of the Chinese, period. I do not see that changing. It is a great language to learn for its own sake, but not based on all the hype you and others are putting forth in such dramatic terms.
- Roger
  
  The truly international languages are English, Spanish, and soon to die French. Not German and Russian, 50% of the Germans know English and Russian is only valuable in a torn apart russian federation. Arabic is only valuable on the street’s of the Middle East and it’s unpopular on the web. chinese is spoken by more people on earth and eventually they are coming to a business nearest you. Chinese is now the 2nd most popular language on the web after English.
Hsiaoshuang

In reply to Svend who thinks any opinion that is slightly anti-China is bullshit, I can see a trend among the billion China netizens who go online regularly to shout down anyone who dislikes Red China. Thankfully there are still millions of overseas Chinese who know that the Beijing regime is a monster that shoots its own students in Tiananmen Square and jails anyone who wants to find out why so many school buildings in Szechuan are made of biscuit bricks.

So, if you continue to write these kind of articles, sooner or later your site will experience denial-of-service attacks, hacking and other forms of online warfare (as Google itself has discovered).
http://www.forgottonlawsofsuccess.com Jon Hollinshead

I live in the UK and we are swamped with chinese students wanting to learn English. The problem with leaning chinese is the dialects. In holland alone there are more that 34 Dutch dielects. learn Dutch in northern holland and they won’t understand you in south holland.
I would be more concerned with the build up of armaments the chinese are ammassing than studying their language.It seems they are on a mission to world domination and are getting ready for a push against the USA and western world.Sorry to be off topic but the best way to learn chinese is to go there and live with them.Google have done the right thing by pulling out of this police state country.
peanchen

it may not help your kids get a job right away unless they choose to do business in asia.. then it’s very important. I’d recommend the mandy and pandy series for starters: http://www.mandyandpandy.com/
http://MandarinSegments.blogspot.com Greg

Bonita, Mandarin may be the most spoken language, but that doesn’t make it the most important.

Additionally, it doesn’t help to quote misleading numbers. You say: “In UK … the number of non-Chinese people learning Mandarin Chinese has soared to 35 million”. NO, that can’t be right. The total population of the UK is only 62m people, so you are saying that more than half of the entire UK is learning Mandarin, including children & pensioners? Not even close!
Bill Cheng

I think you guys are missing the boat. The government is pushing for Mandarin not because it helps individuals getting jobs necessarily or anything like that, rather simply because our country’s future depends on it. When it comes to Mandarin, or anything else for that matter, it comes down to the number game. The reason we have Michal Phelps is not that Americans are better swimmers, but because we have more swimmers than any other country. We have Michal Jordan becuause we have more kids playing basketball. Likewise, Europe has Roger Federer/Rafael Nadal who beat the craps out of our tennis players because they have more training facilities and serious players over there. Only 1 out of 1 million kids who play basketball (or anything else) will go on to become world class. And we need enough fluent Madarin speakers to maintain our competitive edge in business. Let’s face it, how many students who pick up Mandarin will go on to be fluent, 1 out of 100 maybe? And how many will become ‘world class’ Mandarin speakers? Years ago, I read an article about the classification of the Mandarin interpreters working for the state department. The top catagory (or class) are the ones who are able to make accurate translations on the fly for top level government officials. To be able to do that, you need to be super sharp in both English and Mandarin. Guess what? the entire state department has only one interpreter who fits into that category. That was pretty pathetic. As for the other countries, take UK for example, the follwing article appeared earlier this year:
Primary school pupils should learn Mandarin and Arabic to help UK businesses, the government said today.
The schools secretary, Ed Balls, said UK plc increasingly needed children to learn the languages of countries where Britain had “very important business contacts”.
This country may need to follow suit.
Reyhan

I think languages should be learn for the sake of learning the language and your own pleasure. I could never learn Chinese, because I don’t feel motivated by the language (although I like the food and the culture), but I have been very successful at teaching myself English and learning Turkish mostly on my own as well. It was a very rewarding experience, although I don’t think it will rise my chances of getting a better payed job. If kids must learn a language, parents should be open to the kids’ suggestions and preferences. Parents might want their kid to learn Chinese, but does he want to? Wouldn’t he prefer to be learning i.e. Japanese, because he is familiar with many animes and videogames; or Hindi because he likes the movies; or Spanish because he wonders what is Ricky Martin singing about? Language must be something fun and encouraging for kids not a terrible obligation, otherwise they will never really learn. That is why many kids who study Spanish or French as a second language at school in the end are unable to speak it, because it is not motivating for them. My point is, parents want the best for their children, but knowing what your kids wants and letting them choose is important as well for their success
David

My child will be living as an adult in 2020 where considering the current growth, China will be a significant player directly or indirectly influencing the American and World markets. So over time the role of the Chinese language will be different than what it is today. I believe the US govt sees this as the reason to call it a critical language.

As far as learning Mandarin is concerned, it depends on what my child wants to do in life. That would be more important a factor than China’s growth but it will be a secondary influencer without doubt.
http://freechineselesson.com body

hi,the so-called linguist,

at first i got angry with everything you wrote, then i realized it is just HYPE, hype, HYPE which is not worth falling for.

it is just because you were trying to get attention and make some money by people clicking to your blog, by saying bad things about Chinese and China,but which is very big shame on YOU!!!
As a person who studies so many languages yourself, isn’t it supposed to have some basic respect of the language and its culture and its country before you choose that language to study?
although you “speak” 11 languages, i don’t think you really respect those cultures at all. the only culture you respect is your own, in your mind, all other cultures are inferior to English.

and did you go to visit the real China before you make your shit-like comment about China? You are just one of the many ignorant Westerners who just believe what you see and hear from media inside your country!

I am sorry but a linguist who does not respect other cultures are not respected either and cannot be called a linguist anymore. You can have a title of desperate marketer only.
Brian

1: Chinese is an official language in Singapore (Simplified), Hong Kong and Taiwan (Traditional Chinese, more difficult in written form).

2: In Malaysia, Chinese are a common languages used, and there are many local news paper in Chinese.

3: Actaully, Japanese, Korean derived from Chinese, althrough none of them will admit this, and the languages actually pronounce differently.
Japanese and Korean are still using 1000-2000 Chinese characters in their language.

4: Learning to speak Chinese is much easier. Chinese is not alphabet basis, so reading and writing are huge challenge, but oval Chinese is much easier for kid.

5: For most of Chinese peoples, English is difficult too. You are very unlikely to find a Chinese speaking fluent English, even in big city like Beijing and Shanghai.
http://www.chinesetranslationpro.com/ chinese translator

I think learning any language is beneficial for a child. I understand that the interest in Chinese is related with the countries dominance at the global market. The power is shifting and China is going to play dominant role in the future.
http://askpeterchinese.com peter jiang-learn mandarin

Though learning a language is a difficult process, a child can easily acquire it. And genuine guideline is needed for that. As Mandarin is an important language, a child should be encouraged to learn it.

And people of any age can learn Mandarin with me.
Chelsey

Wow. What a poor outlook on learning Mandarin. I have been studying Mandarin at NYU for three years, and trust me, it has payed off. Many jobs would love to have their employees know Mandarin. Let’s start with any job that deals with finance, economics, government, journalism….the list goes on. It really seems like you are ill researched on this subject, and seem to be speaking above your means. I would advise children to learn Mandarin over Spanish, and I’m not trying to downgrade Spanish, but if they want to do substantial work, Mandarin has more benefits. And if not Mandarin, Portuguese…because Brazil is a world player. I really hope you revise this post. You seem really out of touch with the reality of foreign languages. I would enjoy having a respectable conversation with you regarding this matter if you would like. My best, Chelsey.
- http://www.facebook.com/marvelllous Marvella Ivery
  
  I am doing some research on the benefits of Mandarin Chinese over Spanish and German…Please send me an email at marvellaivery@gmail.com to discuss this more…
http://www.nextstepchina.org study china abroad

Thanks for
providing valuable information with the help of post. great efforts
Thomas

I agree with Chelsey below. It’s not true that most Chinese speakers are Cantonese. Not only that, more and more Chinese dialects are disappearing and China’s new generation is turning to mandarin. I recently visited Shanghai, where most people speak a certain dialect, Shanghainese. Today, most of the new generation only know Mandarin. Mandarin is growing. Not only in China, but it is spreading to all Asian countries, especially the South Asian countries :Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, etc. Chinese will most likely become the language of Asia. As for few American students going to work in China, where do you draw that conclusion? A few decades ago, we experienced a major rush of Chinese immigrants because the American economy was the strongest. Who is to say that we may have a reversal in that effect? I’m not trying to be critical of you, but I strongly suggest you rethink your arguments.
E Robert

Chinese, and Mandarin, only 1 country, RIGHT? Try, China, Singapore, Honk Kong and Taiwan. THE FASTEST growing economies. Teach your kids mandarin BEFORE spanish, since Mandarin is harder, and therefore, easier for a child to learn versus an adult. If they can learn the basics of mandarin ages 8 – 14, they can easily learn spanish thereafter. About jobs? I hope my boys do not move to china but most young professionals who have a college education and mandarin language make LOTS of money over there. However, many many jobs here in the USA, the fact that there is so much trade, there is a huge demand, in spite of this crapy article. WOW, bad information on this original article. I take it all back, DON’T have your kids learn Mandarin, therefore, my boys who will be fluent will earn even more money and have more professional options.
Chineseschool12

Great, I am trying to learn Chinese and must say it is not the easiest things I have picked in my life. This study guide will be helpful.
Thanks a lot.

Learn Mandarin
kL

this is biased.. mandarin is so important, in my country (not even an english speaking country) if you can speak mandarin, then you are a ‘+’. how bout English? yeah, it’s the most important language, but it’s more like a “everybodys” language (though how bad u speak or write, ppl at least understand or speak a bit), but mandarin, not all ppl can do that. So like i said before, it’s really2 a plus, and nowdays everybody is doing business with china/chinese ppl, so there’s absolutely a need, yes after english.
Anonymous

This is one of the worst articles I’ve ever read. You need a reality check, Steve. Time to open your eyes.
Anonymous

This is one of the worst articles I’ve ever read. You need a reality check, Steve. Time to open your eyes.
Jackie

While I do agree with the fact that Chinese isn’t spoken often in the United States, I must say it does indeed look good on a resume, and honestly it really isn’t that difficult. It only looks difficult because of the writing, but in reality it is a lot easier than English due to the fact there is no grammar rules. Also learning Chinese, along with a whole new writing system, encourages brain development far more than any other language.
- Spanish and Mandarin speaker.
Achilles

mandarin speak in china that’s true.but remember that there are 1.34billion people in there.

the whole population of US and UK is around 0.34billion,
ApplePie.sg

Alot of jobs now requires mandarin. So learning it is a big plus. Especially when you’re still young.

applepie.sg
ApplePie.sg

Alot of jobs now requires mandarin. So learning it is a big plus. Especially when you’re still young.

applepie.sg
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5S2E456OHFUYC2NI7CRMFKTGHQ Joe
  
  A lot of jobs? Such as?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5S2E456OHFUYC2NI7CRMFKTGHQ Joe
  
  A lot of jobs? Such as?
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Jing-Hu/100003120366663 Jing Hu
    
    Financial services, Tourism, social pubic services,Legal profession, Workers in immigration etc., Not really mandatory but your job outlook is higher if you know both English and Chinese fluently.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5S2E456OHFUYC2NI7CRMFKTGHQ Joe
  
  A lot of jobs? Such as?
ApplePie.sg

Alot of jobs now requires mandarin. So learning it is a big plus. Especially when you’re still young.

applepie.sg
Adam

In Asia, most countries requires you to have at least a basic knowledge on mandarin at least capable of understanding and speaking. Most people send their child to learn mandarin at a very young age knowing how important it is.

http://www.applepie.com.sg
Mikexoteric

This is a good post. I am glad at least some people understand the nature of Mandarin.

There is no need for everyday people outside of China and surrounding area to learn it. It has many thousands of characters and is a huge distraction from actual learning. The main benefit from learning Mandarin as a native speaker of English is the tonal nature. This would be equivalent to learning a musical instrument though which I would recommend over learning Mandarin just for that benefit.

There are better languages for a native English speaker to learn. Namely languages that have huge similarities like German, and French and Spanish to a lesser extent. It has been shown in studies that people who learn languages that are very similar to the one they already know can recall meaning and relations much quicker.

Unless your main field of study is translationintelligence I would not recommend learning Mandarin at all as far as personal development or job prospects are concerned. But learning another language in general is very good for mental development.

And on another note native Mandarin speakers have a much harder time learning English as opposed to English speakers learning Mandarin. Due to the huge variations in sounds that we have. Mandarin just does not have as many sounds. The main difficulty is the tonal nature of the language.
http://teachmechinese.wordpress.com/ LL

This is an important topic to consider and discuss. Not everybody needs to learn Mandarin. Those who wish to learn Mandarin will find plenty of opportunities to do so without depending on the dwindling government resources, which are better reserved for educating our youngsters in the important fundamental subjects of English, mathematics, science and cultivating a positive attitutude towards work, life and humanity. The important thing is to make our country stay competitive in the world market and remain the leader in keeping world peace and protect the sustainability of our earth. I think learning Mandarin should be optional, not mandatory. If you are interested in learning Mandarin, you will be able to find many free resources on the Internet. In particular, you are welcome to visit my “Learn Chinese Weekly” blog at http://teachmechinese.wordpress.com.
Anonymous

This blog is completely ridiculous and the author is simply wrong. If one can learn Mandarin, which is clearly time consuming, difficult and a commitment, there are lots of options. My two young children have mastered the Chinese language, even though we are not a Chinese family. I am incredibly proud of them. While I do not know what opportunities the future may bring, they have enjoyed a cultural appreciation of China and a global perspective.
Julianaheaslet

I like your post Chelsey. We want our children to rise up in the business world, compete with other prosperous nations. Why are they forced to learn Spanish? Unless they take two yrs. they dont grad. in Ca! That’s what’s dragging this Nation down.
Pingback: Why learning Chinese is hard, Not! « DIY language
Akraft

Yes, learning Mandarin is a waste of time. This is a “classic” language fad. This is completely ridiculous. The wages in China are very low. What American needs to speak Chinese. American companies high Chinese English speakers to run their companies. You could learn French or German much more quickly and have a wealth of cultural opportunities. Think about it.
Michelle

i find this post absolutely out of touch with the reality. mandarin only talked in China? REALLY?! what a lot of c…. Bearing in mind that chinese people travel all over the world always seeking new opportunities, learning their language i think is essential to keep up. Speaking of experience here. I am from west africa, I have travelled in my country for the last time about 10 years ago and have been taken aback to see so many chinese people there, doing business. and according to my family back there the numbers just keep on growing.
My 3yo daughter is bilingual french/english but she already is learning mandarin. I am totally convinced that it will be a plus for her future and so are the thousands of parents taking their young children to mandarin classes. And really at such a young age it is barely “learning” but more having fun. how can that be bad?
- Gtrrt
  
  it’s horrible like dying in my opinion, trust me i’ve been there.
Yen Yen

One of my mandarin student takes the lesson because he can’t speak Chinese in his overseas job. He feels really sorry why he was so lazy learning mandarin in high school before. Currently during his 2 months job vacation, he takes the intensive Chinese lesson seriously. Juz my 2 cents.
Yen Yen

One of my mandarin student takes the lesson because he can’t speak Chinese in his overseas job. He feels really sorry why he was so lazy learning mandarin in high school before. Currently during his 2 months job vacation, he takes the intensive Chinese lesson seriously. Juz my 2 cents.
Kath Kim

this post is absolutely ridiculous. you need to see the reality. LOL~ ignorance
Daniel

This sounds like some biased and poorly wrote reasons on Chinese.
All the facts stated sounded like something you assumed from real life experience.
Please cite all resources from a trustable writer, before writing some stupid article such as this.
Oshunwater5

This is a TERRIBLE article and GREATLY misinformed. Teach your children Mandarin before Spanish or anything else because believe it or not its positioning in the world of economics and business is great. Why wouldn’t American students get a job post graduate in China? It is highly possible and while there are millions of young post graduates like myself doing big things here in China and stabilizing ourselves financially, those back in the U.S are crying due to high unemployment. Lets GET REAL. We are talking about BUSINESS. When you want to take part movement in this world then Mandarin is key. The human brain can grasp any language and to downgrade the effort it takes to learn ANY language is ignorant of you. Success comes from any and all efforts. Nothing is wasted if you choose to use it and put it to work. You need to put your own mind to work and LEARN something instead of making ill informed articles. Clearly you have no understanding of the subject at hand. 再见！bye bye!
Mukimuki

I do not know about the important of Spanish in the US, however, outside of the Americas, Spanish is practically not useful at all! I don’t even understand all this hype of Spanish! Here in Europe, apart from Spain (which is having HIGH unemployment rate, sluggish economy = no jobs; and even German is spoken at all tourist spots), where else is Spanish spoken? Important? Based on what? Jobs? Career? Spanish might be super useful in the Americas, but that’s pretty much it. You don’t even see the same level of political and economical power of the Spanish-speaking region as China! Even the highly regarded Brazil speaks Portuguese, not Spanish!

I think Chinese is the way to go, especially given China’s growing economic and political clout in the world - think about it, who’s knocking on China’s (and Japan’s) door asking for financial help into the IMF and euro zone fund? The EU and the US! Anyone is asking the Spanish-speaking Americas to put in any money????
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jing-Hu/100003120366663 Jing Hu

To each their own. I was offered 3 jobs because I am a bilingual in English and Chinese. You can’t just downgrade another language based entirly on your expeirence or oppinion.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jing-Hu/100003120366663 Jing Hu

Though i do not agree with the authors ways of downgrading the Chinese language, I do believe that being “bilingual” (either Chinese or others) can be beneficial in todays job market. More and more people immigrate to the U.S. from China, India, Japan., mastering both their native tongue AND English which will make the outlook for finding a job very comeptitive amongst people who only speak English.

It’s obviously a personal choice for people to choose what language they want to learn. People like this author shouldn’t downgrade other language simply by his own oppinion. If you want to learn a language such as Chinese GO FOR IT! Your future will be great with many job oppurtunies.
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http://www.applepie.com.sg/ Chinese Speech and Drama

No matter what, China is pretty dominant economically despite their controversial China made products and piracy. And being bilingual is very helpful too, and Chinese happens to be one of the major language right now. China is a market many companies trying to get into with their eye looking at the major population and their willingness to spend.
http://www.applepie.com.sg/ Chinese Speech and Drama

Uses on the Chinese language is ever growing. Start from childhood. Don’t just look at present and ignore the future usefulness of that language. Not to mention it is already changing it’s shape now. Chinese Speech and Drama
Shingo Yamashita

the article you wrote, I have to say that it is not convincing and lack of proof.
First, as a Chinese-learner, 15 or more strokes to write a character isn’t much, hey, relax, it is the best way to develop memory to your children.
if you wanna learn anything well, do not afraid of the difficulties, that must be the way you can learn a thing well. the more difficulties you can overcome, the more opportunities you you will have.
I would also recommend that children could learn Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German whatever they like. but choose the one from your child’s interest.
I thought you were kidding by saying that overseas Chinese are mainly speaking Cantonese, you can very easily find Chinese who speaking Mandarin, btw, Cantonese -speakers can speak Mandarin too.
It is not an international language, but Chinese has a wide influence in East-Asia, e.g. Chinese is one of Singaporean official language, numerous Malaysian can speak Mandarin, as well as Republic of China, Hong Kong S.A.R, Macau S.A.R. further, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, Cambodia have been influenced by Chinese for thousand of years, they borrowed many characters from Chinese characters, meaning or idioms, etc, it means that if you children could learn Chinese well, they could learn Korean, Japanese or Vietnamese easily.
Like German learn Dutch, Norwegian learn Swedish, Italian learn Spanish.
Only short-sight people will consider the income in China is low, etc. do some research on that please, Over 10,000 German work in Shanghai, More than 1 million Korean reside in Shandong province, over 10.000 American and British work in Beijing, Over 20,000 people from Africa live in Guangzhou and over half million of foreigners live in Hong Kong. guess why those people are staying in China? would they only earn 1000 bucks/month there? in fact, it’s not. I have a Canadian friend, who’s 24 years old, majored in Construction Engineering, made 63,000 Yuan/month (same value as 10,000 Canadian dollars/month, 120k/year) by designing office buildings.
littleYOSHI

I think learning Mandarin would be good for every child. I set aside time to come up with Mandarin Learning Materials for my own kid so that he would find Mandarin learning fun. Every time i hear him trying to speak the language, i feel like my hard work pay off. I even put them up on my Blog to share with other moms. I really believe that learn mandarin will help them a lot when they grow up.

http://little-yoshi-2011.blogspot.com/
AbigailMadisonHomeStaffing

I run a nanny agency in New York and I have several requests for Mandarin Chinese speaking nannies and tutors. In fact, these are the most popular request! Many of the families requesting this work overseas and see the benefits of learning Mandarin for social and economic purposes. Without debating which language is more important, Mandarin is a great language to speak as is French, Spanish, Italian….
Nate

Mandarin, will be a great asset to your resume in the future. Don’t forget that 30 to 40% of the product that comes into the United States is from China, Japan is also out sourcing most of its product to China. Learning Mandarin is tough, but be ahead of the curve so when change comes your prepared.
Greg Hines

People are ignorant. Steve speaks mandarin fairly well, as evidenced by his writings and youtube videos IN Mandarin. Furthermore, I totally agree with him, and here’s why:
1. Yes, China is impressive economically, but the international language of business has been, for almost 100 years now, English. This will likely not change in our lifetime. While some people may tout that conducting business in the client’s native language would be beneficial to maintaining a business relationship, the truth of the matter is that English will still be preferred, even if one of the members of the business transaction is a secondary English speaker.

2. Everyone touts that China is an economic powerhouse. Yes, their gain in GDP is impressive, but most of that is due solely to outsourcing of manufacturing, which basically takes advantage of the huge population resource that China has. While Chinese businesses and the Chinese government are definitely profiting, much of China is far from being economically prosperous and stable.

3. He did not say most people speak Cantonese in the world. What he said was that most Chinese immigrants to the US and most likely Canada are from Cantonese speaking regions of China. Also, the official language of Hong Kong is Cantonese, not Mandarin, as someone stated.

4. Learning Chinese is a daunting prospect and will likely take twice as long as learning another Indo-European language, meaning you could potentially learn two (or more, with experience) Indo-European languages in the time that it would take you to learn Chinese. I’m pretty sure an American who is trilingual in English and two European languages is more valuable than one who has studied Mandarin for years and still has far to go before becoming fluent enough to conduct business.

5. What happens when you have to do business in Hong Kong or in one of the areas of China where Mandarin is not the dominant languages. Most people think the other party would revert to Mandarin, right? Wrong. In those situations, English actually does play a critical role when westerners are involved.

6. Foreign languages are a soft skill. It’s much more important to first make sure your education in hard skills (maths, science, business, etc) are strong. For example, If you speak Mandarin but you don’t have any business acumen, then what good does it do? The truth about the translation business is that much of it is field-specific. What this means is that people who are experts in fields like medicine, law, and business are often the most sought after, because those are where the majority of translation is needed. General translation is neither glamorous nor fiscally impressive.

7. This is just another one of those language fads. In the 60-70s, everyone who wanted their kids to have a productive life were encouraged to teach them Russian. In the 80s and early 90s, it was Japanese. Now, it’s Chinese, and in the future, I have no doubt it will change again. The moral of the story is this: If you learn a language based on how you perceive the world might be a decade from now, you are an idiot. It’s far more important to learn a language to which you have a connection and will enjoy learning. If you do this, you can make yourself more marketable. Chinese does not lead to the holy grail as some of you seem to think.

Should Your Child Be Learning Mandarin?

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