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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I work in career services at a large university and am not currently seeing a demand for US born Mandarin speakers in the job market.

The kids most in demand are the ones with true global fluency,  like the diplomat's kids who grew up speaking a native language but attended English speaking international schools in multiple countries.  The Chinese students are marketable back home for their English skills.  There is very little demand for mandarin speakers here in the US and it is not easy for an American to get hired in China due to visa and work permit regulations etc.

I support the study of foreign languages for the pure sake of it but at least as of right now the market is speaking and Mandarin isn't much in demand.  Whether it will be in 20 years or not is another question.
Right now I'm not seeing it.
[/quote]

+1.  A friend of mine (white, Jewish) studied Mandarin to college level and then lived and worked in China (running a factory) for 5 years.  When he returned to the US he was completely unemployable.  He searched for a job for THREE YEARS before giving up and going back to China where his skills were actually in demand as a native English speaker with fluent Mandarin. There was no demand in the US at all for someone with his language skills. [/quote]

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