Reply to S/O what''s the point of studying Mandarin?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We said all the same things about Japanese in the 80 s
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Also Russian in the '60-'80s.  And Arabic in the past decade.  Mandarin and Hindi are probably good bets today in terms of future business use, if that's what interests you.

But you might be surprised by what is actually useful, and it will depend on your field and where you focus.  I'm in an international relations field, and I've studied Spanish, French, German, Russian, and Japanese.  The most useful language to know, hands down, has been French.  Which, ironically, my parents steered me away from when languages started in elementary school, because Spanish was seen as being much more useful.  That made sense where I grew up (Southern California), but I've never used it for work.  The German, yes, and Russian has been useful recently.  Japanese, nope, never done anything with it (studied it because it was an interest, rather than a requirement).

It's a good idea to study a language, especially starting at a young age when it's just easier to learn.  I wouldn't force Mandarin on a child, though, in the hopes that it would someday help them get into college or succeed in business.[/quote]

I studied Russian in the 70-80s! Might be useful again now thought, maybe I should brush up...[/quote]

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