Is Learning Chinese A Waste of Your Time?

For beginners it may sometimes occur that a different language is hard to start with.

The answer to it depends on the circumstances you are under. If you’d like to maximum your return on investment by learning Chinese in terms of a high paid job, the answer is an almost certain yes.

Chinese people, especially high educated ones, prefer speaking with you in English. Even if their English is not better than your Chinese. Consider they are showing respect to a international friend.

To be honest, only in China you are able to use Chinese as a professional skill. If you aren’t stationed in China, then, knowing Chinese won’t help you much in communicating with most Chinese companies. The only people you typically need Mandarin to communicate effectively with in a business environment is low level management.

Moreover, it costs you non-negligible money and takes effort to maintain. To Chinese people, watching TV, reading and talking with others merely maintain, nonetheless improve their language level. If you have Chinese as your second language, more effort is required.

But for the other purposes Chinese works out differently.

To gain competitive advantage in the long run, learning Chinese is a nice choice and habit to keep. With the international status of China is quite different now and will improve in the future. Chinese mandarin plays a more vital role. It is always right to follow the trend.

Language is the carrier of a culture. You can never attach to real Chinese culture and spirit if you don’t know Chinese.

If you want to find your another half in China, learning Chinese is required.

To end with, if there is really no persuasive reason for learning Chinese. It should just be put in the “it amuses me” category where no one can argue with you. If it happens to have some pleasant side effects, then all the better.