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Learning Mandarin. Why Bother?

Learning Mandarin. Why Bother?

Posted by Dan on April 24, 2010

Great discussion going on over at the Linkedin China Law Blog group on whether it is worth the time to learn Mandarin. Click here to joint the discussion and click here to join the group.

This question has already spurned 55 comments and a blog post, entitled, "Is It Worth Learning Mandarin Chinese?"

To grossly summarize the comments, the overarching view is that learning Mandarin will be a plus for your career, but not a panacea. The value of learning Mandarin for your career will be greater if you are in China as opposed to outside China.There is a consensus that learning Mandarin (or any other language for that matter) is good for the mind/soul.

Blogger Dan Feldman's short answer is "it depends," but his longer answer certainly leans towards yes. Below are the headings from Feldman's arguments and I urge you to read the entire post.

-- Each person must determine his/her own cost-benefit ratio for learning a new language, such as Chinese.

-- Fluency in Mandarin alone does not guarantee business success in China.

-- Internationally, Chinese certainly carries less importance than English, as a language of business, international relations and diplomacy.

-- Though language skills are not an essential component for doing business in China, they can be extremely useful.

-- Even for the most fluent non-native Chinese speakers, it is often more efficient to delegate certain kinds of work, i.e. translations, to a native speaker.

-- The US Government understands that you can't engage China effectively with managers who don't speak Mandarin.

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Comments (6)

Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the end

Bai Liping - April 24, 2010 4:40 AM

I personally find it painful to communicate with westerners in Chinese, because they can't tell the subtleness of words, therefore, it is difficult for me to convey my idea to them accurately in Chinese.

If you are in your late 20s or 30s, I guess not learning Chinese is a better choice, because at that point of your life, the highest level you can achieve is just daily communication, far away from what is required to conduct business. But if you are young enough, yes, learn Chinese.

pingping - April 24, 2010 11:41 PM

Maybe foreigners felt the same way communicating with Chinese people who were grappling with English when China just started opening up to the outside world. Learning a foreign language is fun apart from the utilitarian purpose. Plus I always find it interesting to hear different dialects. Back in college, we had classmates from Guangdong, Shanghai and other parts of China, their dialects are every bit as foreign languages to my ears. Generally northerners find themselves in a disadvantaged postion because the Mandarin is bascially modeled on their language. They tend to feel frustrated when southern counterparts communicate in dialects as if exchanging secret codes. For foreign businessmen, I think it's worthwhile to learn Chinese, sometimes commanding a smattering of Chinese words like "Gan Bei" or"Niu Bi"(which has almost shed its coarse aspect and joined the ranks of popular Chinese slangs) can help with their business deals. For complicated discussions, such as to hash out the nitty-gritty of certain matters, just hire well-trained conference interpreters, me for example.lol

Twofish - April 25, 2010 6:06 AM

There are some important reasons to learn Mandarin even if you can only read/understand the language at a basic level.

1) There are vast sources of information that are only in Chinese. There are huge sources of information on the web that never gets translated into English.

2) There is the case of watching the watchmen. If you have basic fluency in Mandarin, you will need a native translator for many things, and you'll find machine translation to be useful. However, without minimal fluency in Mandarin, you have no idea if the native translator is competent or not.

robertb - April 28, 2010 8:25 AM

This is the first time I've agreed with every word Twofish wrote.

Glen - May 1, 2010 8:55 PM

Why were my comments purged? Is there a new policy I don't know about? If it's just a mistake: weird. If it's a new policy: lame.

Jeremy W. - July 26, 2010 9:47 PM

I learned Mandarin 20 years ago and though I know live in Chicago, I still find myself using it all the time and it is something I would not trade for anything. It expanded my mind.

Learning basic mandarin

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