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?

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

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will never be the language of business? Are you serious or making a joke?

I know. OP, you realize that Hong Kong and Shanghai are two of the largest business centers of the world, right? And that China is the single largest (yes, bigger than the US) new business target in the world. The population is so large and the economy is booming, so that this is the world's largest marketplace, hence so many international companies are looking for a foothold in China.

Right now and for decades to come, those having Mandarin as a fluent language will have a lot more economically profitable opportunities than those without. There are many, many jobs right now which are open for those who communicate fluently in Mandarin to work in or support business in China.

You are woefully misinformed if you think that Mandarin is a waste or will be a waste for the foreseeable future.

They don't speak very good Mandarin in HK, since the local language is Cantonese.. however that will probably change as more mainlanders encroach upon HK, and population-wise, neighoboring Guangdong province is heavy with Mandarin speakers due to all the migrant workers.

All that aside, Mandarin is useful in business, and because a large number of recent immigrants to the US are Mandarin speakers. I speak very basic Mandarin for business reasons, and I encounter people speaking Chinese in everyday life around here pretty much daily.

As for studying Hindi, I'd recommend against that. Business (and education) in India is done in English.

Anonymous wrote:It will never be the language of business? Are you serious or making a joke?

I know. OP, you realize that Hong Kong and Shanghai are two of the largest business centers of the world, right? And that China is the single largest (yes, bigger than the US) new business target in the world. The population is so large and the economy is booming, so that this is the world's largest marketplace, hence so many international companies are looking for a foothold in China.

Right now and for decades to come, those having Mandarin as a fluent language will have a lot more economically profitable opportunities than those without. There are many, many jobs right now which are open for those who communicate fluently in Mandarin to work in or support business in China.

You are woefully misinformed if you think that Mandarin is a waste or will be a waste for the foreseeable future.

Anonymous wrote:We said all the same things about Japanese in the 80 s

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We said all the same things about Japanese in the 80 s

Yup.

You guys are going to look pretty dumb in 20 years, sorry

Oh and before anyone tries to call me an ignorant monolingual American, I speak Spanish, French, and another Asian language. It was a terribly painful experience to learn and I never use it in any capacity except to talk to DH's family. Would absolutely not have bothered if I didn't really love DH

You compared Japanese to mandarin?

Do you know how many people spoke Japanese in the 80s vs how many people speak Mandarin now? Just because you are Tri lingual doesn't mean you are not ignorant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We said all the same things about Japanese in the 80 s

Yup.

You guys are going to look pretty dumb in 20 years, sorry

Oh and before anyone tries to call me an ignorant monolingual American, I speak Spanish, French, and another Asian language. It was a terribly painful experience to learn and I never use it in any capacity except to talk to DH's family. Would absolutely not have bothered if I didn't really love DH

Anonymous wrote:We said all the same things about Japanese in the 80 s

Yup.

You guys are going to look pretty dumb in 20 years, sorry

We said all the same things about Japanese in the 80 s

Anonymous wrote:
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?

OP, are you serious? This is the way kids get into college today. China has surpassed us in economic power. My kid had six years of it under his belt when he applied to college. Portuguese is also valued. Arabic. Russsian and German if you are going into engineering. All future business languages.

OP, just remain an ignorant American, that'll suit you just fine

A billion people speak it

Soon they will own our dumb lazy asses.

Figure it out.

It will never be the language of business? Are you serious or making a joke?

I'd hope this is troll

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?