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

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Seems like there have been several threads recently about elementary school kids taking Mandarin or other Chinese dialects.

I'm having a hard time understanding why anyone would want to do that unless they have some family or cultural connection to China. It just doesn't seem like a particularly useful language to know unless you plan to live there some day. It'll never be the language of business, for instance. So, what's the appeal, exactly?[/quote]

Why study French, German, or Spanish for that matter?  Doesn't seem particularly useful to know.[/quote]

Well, French is a language of diplomacy.

Mandarin will only ever be used in China. Yes, it's a huge market -- [b]but like I said, is usefulness is limited[/b],unless you're going to go live and work there.[/quote]

this is so dumb and ill-informed. [b]How many people right in this area speak Mandarin on a daily basis?[/b] - I know dozens of them. [/quote]

A fractionally minuscule amount.[/quote]

Obviously a fraction, since not everybody speaks Mandarin. But if you want to speak to the people right here in this area who speak Mandarin, then knowing how to speak Mandarin is useful.

In any case, it's an odd argument. If you want to know why somebody without family or cultural origins in China would study Mandarin, why not ask somebody without family or cultural origins in China who is studying Mandarin?[/quote]

It's not an odd argument. I said it's useful if you're going to live in China. But other than that, I don't see the utility.

I believe a lot of upper middle class overly anxious mommies -- the kind that scheme to get their precious little snowflake into AAP -- push Mandarin on to their children believing for some reason it will give their child an "edge."

What I'm saying is that it's a foolhearty way of thinking. You're right -- UNLESS you're going to interact with a miniscule Chinese-speaking market in this area or live in China, it has no utility. Mandarin simply will NEVER be the language of global business. I think some people foolishly believe it will.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics