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Comment on Do you think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time? by Jennifer Zhu

Jennifer Zhu — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:45:59 +0000

Learning Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time, it is very necessary, because now China is becoming stronger and stronger. Of course, I find that in order to really learn a language, you need to have great motivation to do so. If you are interested in languages and in Chinese culture and travel, it would probably be worthwhile. I am a Chinese teacher, I know clearly that Chinese is a useful and beautiful language, and I believe that it will be a great advantage if you can learn Chinese well. If you want to know more, you can send me an email at: Jennifer Zhu@echineselearning. I hope that you can make fast progress with your Chinese learning.
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Comment on Do you think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time? by Babay

Babay — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:24:59 +0000

It depends on you. It is my dream to learn Chinese, so I do it, not because anyone pressures me to do it. In the long run, it will be a great opportunity to my future life.
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Comment on Do you think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time? by Didily

Didily — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:59:59 +0000

I do not think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time, because I learned it for a long time, it is really interesting, I love it.
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Comment on Do you think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time? by Linnea T

Linnea T — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:21:59 +0000

um, no? Mandarin is the most commonly spoken language in the world (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html) and China and the US are so intertwined and co-dependent politically and economically that if you want to understand the global system, you better understand China. Now, if you’re not going to have any contact with China, whatever, don’t learn mandarin. But I do not for a second think that learning such an important language is a waste of time. Personally I think it’s cool that I can communicate with 1.3 billion other people that I couldn’t before. And as for being difficult, of course it is. But so is english, which has more exceptions to it’s grammar rules than chinese does. And in response to a person’s comment on India–I don’t think they’re going to surpass China anytime soon, as the Indian government has a billion people that need to agree with them, no one has to agree with the chinese government for them to do what they want. Not that that’s a good thing, just saying
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Comment on Do you think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time? by Mikhail

Mikhail — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:16:59 +0000

I completely agree with you. There are many, many more factors that go into a language’s achieving global hegemony than just being spoken by a large number of people in one relatively small area with the world’s fourth largest economy.

Mandarin lacks nearly all of the factors needed for a language to become truly "international", the foremost of which is a strong popular culture to back it. If you’ve been to Europe any time recently, you’ve probably realized that nearly ALL of the music consumed by young Europeans, if it hasn’t been produced in Great Britain or America, is in the English language. The vast majority of young European adults also speak beautiful English– now, the European Union has the largest economy in the world. In a decade or two, a new generation of English-speaking leaders is going to begin to take the reigns of the world’s largest economy. The future is in a united Europe, not China.

No other language comes even close to rivaling English’s status as the global "lingua franca" (English is an official language in at least one country on every inhabited continent whereas Mandarin is official in three– and it’s only spoken by a minority in two of the three), and there are only two other languages that have the culture behind them to achieve a real level of international prestige: Spanish and Arabic.

I don’t see English falling out of usage as the language of the world any time in this CENTURY, but I do foresee Arabic and Spanish becoming increasingly more important.

I also don’t see China becoming Asia’s major power, as many have predicted. I have very high hopes for India which benefits from a democratic government and a more stable economy. In fact, India’s economy, though still considerably smaller than China’s, has attained a faster rate of growth than that of the People’s Republic of China.

I, as someone who studies languages, agree with you completely. The rest of the world doesn’t drive SUVs, eat disgusting amounts of sushi, wear Ugg boots, or claim to have Asperger’s– and the rest of the world isn’t interested in learning Mandarin either.
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Linguistics student

Comment on Do you think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time? by Rocketman

Rocketman — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:57:59 +0000

I guess if you're going to do business with Chinks or something, it's not a waste of time.
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Comment on Do you think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time? by Mikey

Mikey — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:45:59 +0000

If you have any intention of using it, then it is not a fad – between Mandarin and Cantonese, you probably have the two most important languages for business after English – and even if China as an exporter has peaked, it will still be very important. I agree that it’s far harder, because of the tone elements, but if you can master them, then it’s great training. The extra cultural insight you get is also really useful – even if ultimately you don’t use the language.

Though "Mandarin or Cantonese?" is as impossible a question as "Gujarati or Hindi?"… I may be with you on "why pick the impossible one?" there!
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Comment on Do you think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time? by hannnnnnnnna :)

hannnnnnnnna :) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:03:59 +0000

i think it depends completely on what type of job field you are in
living in the united states..spanish would be far more useful
spanish is the second most spoken language in the US
french for traveling in canada, europe, and africa
french is actually the most globally spoken language, next to english
mandarin chinese is actually not very useful, unless communication with asia is in our field of work

mandarin chinese is also EXTREMELY difficult to learn, and i agree, unless you have extreme dedication, its useless. my aunt is chinese, and taught me for a few years, but even after a few years, it is very very difficult to learn. i could never be fluent in it, i dont have the dedication
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sociology major

Comment on Do you think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time? by goatee

goatee — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:41:59 +0000

It depends on how you plan on using it. If you are interested in languages and in Chinese culture and travel, it would probably be worthwhile. However, if it's just to show off to others, it would probably take more of a commitment than it's worth. I find that in order to really learn a language, you need to have great motivation to do so. And I believe that simply being a hipster and wanting to learn Chinese just to impress others is not enough motivation.
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Comment on Do you think learning Mandarin Chinese is a silly fad and ultimately a waste of time? by elendryst

elendryst — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:32:59 +0000

How is learning a language to a country America's in massive debt to a waste of time or counterproductive? Middle class white people see where the future is. Besides it could be worse, we could all be forced to speak french.
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