a good command in chinese is an advantage?

[y]

a good command in chinese is an advantage?

[youngyew]

chinese that necessary in 30 years later?
Huh?

[YiYang]

You learn a language because it is necessary 30 years later, dude?

[Tortoise]

Eh dude.. Shouldn't you have a much better excuse to learn a language than for 30 years later???

[jay3349]

Let's get back on topic. Is knowing chinese an advantage?

I know most recommers are of chinese and thus this question might seem absurd. And for your information guys, you don't have to wait 30 years to get an advantage from mandarin. You can get an advantage NOW.

As a person of non-Chinese descent, I think learning Mandarin is a huge advantage. In fact, I am planning on going for Mandarin classes myself. For your infomation, YiYang and Tortoise, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language after English. So it is no longer necessary to learn Japanese, French or German, learn MANDARIN.

[bp_ffei]

As a person of non-Chinese descent, I think learning Mandarin is a huge advantage. In fact, I am planning on going for Mandarin classes myself. For your infomation, YiYang and Tortoise, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language after English. So it is no longer necessary to learn Japanese, French or German, learn MANDARIN.

Hmm... I'm not sure about Mandarin being a widely spoken language... yet. Depends how you put it... IMO, Mandarin is mostly spoken only in China, parts of Southeast Asia and in Chinatowns around the world (Cantonese may be a more important language/dialect in Chinatowns though). Compared to Spanish (spoken in Spain, Mexico, most of Latin America except Brazil) and French (France, Switzerland, Quebec, and many African countries), I don't think Mandarin is as widespread.

China is setting up Confucius academies around the world a la Goethe Institute by Germany, but I don't think the impact will come soon.

[JetLee0510]

As a person of non-Chinese descent, I think learning Mandarin is a huge advantage. In fact, I am planning on going for Mandarin classes myself. For your infomation, YiYang and Tortoise, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language after English. So it is no longer necessary to learn Japanese, French or German, learn MANDARIN.

Hmm... I'm not sure about Mandarin being a widely spoken language... yet. Depends how you put it... IMO, Mandarin is mostly spoken only in China, parts of Southeast Asia and in Chinatowns around the world (Cantonese may be a more important language/dialect in Chinatowns though). Compared to Spanish (spoken in Spain, Mexico, most of Latin America except Brazil) and French (France, Switzerland, Quebec, and many African countries), I don't think Mandarin is as widespread.

China is setting up Confucius academies around the world a la Goethe Institute by Germany, but I don't think the impact will come soon. I'm nt sure whether mandarin is widely spoken onot, too.. but one thg for sure.. many books, GREAT BOOKS, was written in chinese..

[haagendaz]

A good command in any language is an advantage!

[lXl]

It's common knowledge that mandarin is the MOST widely spoken language in the world. I'm surprise none here notice that.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm

[youngyew]

It's common knowledge that mandarin is the MOST widely spoken language in the world. I'm surprise none here notice that.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm
Agreed. When you say "only" in China, you are already talking about almost one fifth of World's population.

[hamburger]

It's common knowledge that mandarin is the MOST widely spoken language in the world. I'm surprise none here notice that.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm
wa....dont say none lar....
learning chinese language is definitely a great challenge...even though i am a chinese...i dont think i am able to use it fluently (in writing composition...or the pronounciation..)it is really hard though
but i am proud that i take chinese in my spm (=\ although i didnt excel in that subject..haha)
i think almost everyone realise that chinese language is getting more and more important now. So, do not hestitate to learn mandarin, plz dont drop your chinese subject in order to achieve better result!!!

[bush]

makes you marketable........

[eslite]

It's common knowledge that mandarin is the MOST widely spoken language in the world. I'm surprise none here notice that.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm
Agreed. When you say "only" in China, you are already talking about almost one fifth of World's population.
I doubt that everyone in China knows how to speak Mandarin. The big industrial cities along the coast maybe but not more kampung places where their dialect (which is very different) is widely used.

[pinkie]

It's common knowledge that mandarin is the MOST widely spoken language in the world. I'm surprise none here notice that.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm
Agreed. When you say "only" in China, you are already talking about almost one fifth of World's population.

Yea.Totally agree with youngyew..Furthermore China is progressing rapidly nowadays.. :)

[hamburger]

It's common knowledge that mandarin is the MOST widely spoken language in the world. I'm surprise none here notice that.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm
Agreed. When you say "only" in China, you are already talking about almost one fifth of World's population.

Yea.Totally agree with youngyew..Furthermore China is progressing rapidly nowadays.. :)

i feel so proud for the statistic.... NICE JOB~

[bush]

It's common knowledge that mandarin is the MOST widely spoken language in the world. I'm surprise none here notice that.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm
Agreed. When you say "only" in China, you are already talking about almost one fifth of World's population.
I doubt that everyone in China knows how to speak Mandarin. The big industrial cities along the coast maybe but not more kampung places where their dialect (which is very different) is widely used.

Everyone does..............only with a thick accent.

[youngyew]

It's common knowledge that mandarin is the MOST widely spoken language in the world. I'm surprise none here notice that.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm
Agreed. When you say "only" in China, you are already talking about almost one fifth of World's population.
I doubt that everyone in China knows how to speak Mandarin. The big industrial cities along the coast maybe but not more kampung places where their dialect (which is very different) is widely used.
You are right. However, with mandatory mandarin education in school nowadays, more and more people in China speak Mandarin. One source points at 800 million people, and that's 14% of world population. And that's only for spoken Chinese. For written chinese langugae, I think there are even more users.

[rossycarnation]

too expensive if i take a class to learn chinese language!!

waaa!!! :oops:

[bp_ffei]

Hmm... So most of you here agree that mandarin being concentrated at one corner of the world makes it WIDELY spoken? It's just the way you define it anyway... I was thinking more along the lines of how global it is (i.e. how widespread around the world it is, regardless of it being the native tongue or secondary), rather than the number of people speaking it. English would still win using this definition.

[youngyew]

Hmm... So most of you here agree that mandarin being concentrated at one corner of the world makes it WIDELY spoken? It's just the way you define it anyway... I was thinking more along the lines of how global it is (i.e. how widespread around the world it is, regardless of it being the native tongue or secondary), rather than the number of people speaking it. English would still win using this definition.
It's true that most mandarin speakers are concentrated in China, and it's also true in terms of global spread English is far ahead of Mandarin. However, even with the global perspective, Mandarin is still one of the most spoken language in major cities, so its economical power is not to be played down.

So I concede that it's technically inaccurate to say Chinese language is the most WIDELY spoken language. However, you must not play down its rising importance with the rising power of China. Having said that, it's equally advantageous if one knows Japanese, Spanish, Korean etc, they are all economically important languages.

[lXl]

It is true that English is more spread out throughout the world. However, with that said, the no. of people speaking mandarin still exceeds those who speaks english.

http://www.photius.com/rankings/languages2.html

[luke]

ok so Mandarin won over English bla bla bla ... what's the prize? An entry in Guinness Book of Records? Or you can go on vacation to Cuba and expect you can do bargaining in Mandarin with the shopkeepers? :roll:

[evening_go_jogging]

yeah, mandarin is the mother tongue to at least 1.3 billion people (one-fifth of the world population).
nonetheless, lots of chinese in china couldn't speak mandarin.
however, i do agree that the commanding of mandarin will provide you a better edge since china is growing rapidly and perhaps it will be the nation of supremacy in the next few years.

[sore_four_eyes]

Yeah, Chinese definitely is important to pick up no matter the dialect. I was rejected for a job interview the other day (for the post of sales assistant) because I wasn't fluent in Chinese!

So there's a lesson. :?

[cheryl_c2x]

As a person of non-Chinese descent, I think learning Mandarin is a huge advantage. In fact, I am planning on going for Mandarin classes myself. For your infomation, YiYang and Tortoise, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language after English. So it is no longer necessary to learn Japanese, French or German, learn MANDARIN.

Hmm... I'm not sure about Mandarin being a widely spoken language... yet. Depends how you put it... IMO, Mandarin is mostly spoken only in China, parts of Southeast Asia and in Chinatowns around the world (Cantonese may be a more important language/dialect in Chinatowns though). Compared to Spanish (spoken in Spain, Mexico, most of Latin America except Brazil) and French (France, Switzerland, Quebec, and many African countries), I don't think Mandarin is as widespread.

China is setting up Confucius academies around the world a la Goethe Institute by Germany, but I don't think the impact will come soon.

i read somewhere too that spanish is the most widely spoken language after english

[youngyew]

As a person of non-Chinese descent, I think learning Mandarin is a huge advantage. In fact, I am planning on going for Mandarin classes myself. For your infomation, YiYang and Tortoise, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language after English. So it is no longer necessary to learn Japanese, French or German, learn MANDARIN.

Hmm... I'm not sure about Mandarin being a widely spoken language... yet. Depends how you put it... IMO, Mandarin is mostly spoken only in China, parts of Southeast Asia and in Chinatowns around the world (Cantonese may be a more important language/dialect in Chinatowns though). Compared to Spanish (spoken in Spain, Mexico, most of Latin America except Brazil) and French (France, Switzerland, Quebec, and many African countries), I don't think Mandarin is as widespread.

China is setting up Confucius academies around the world a la Goethe Institute by Germany, but I don't think the impact will come soon.

i read somewhere too that spanish is the most widely spoken language after english
http://www.vistawide.com/languages/top_30_languages.htm

Disclaimer to bp_ffei: This is using the absolute number, not the "wide" definition. :) But anyway when people say "widely" used, they normally just refer to the absolute number, don't they? I'm not saying that you are wrong, I'm just talking about the word usage in general.

[Miracle_seed]

Chinese is one of the official language of United Nation.....

[bp_ffei]

Disclaimer to bp_ffei: This is using the absolute number, not the "wide" definition. :) But anyway when people say "widely" used, they normally just refer to the absolute number, don't they? I'm not saying that you are wrong, I'm just talking about the word usage in general.

Haha, point taken. Anyway I wasn't debating about it anymore. Like I said, I had my own definitions for widely spoken. :) Agree that in general "widely spoken" means absolute number.

[maxx]

LOL.. nowadays.. even in US.. Chinese classes is held in school.. juz the matter of time.. US will be replaced by China in the future.. so Chinese will be more "valuable" that time.. btw.. if u can master one more language.. surely u will win against the others.. even Singapore A-lvl also required chinese to take chinese

[wendy]

Yeah, Chinese definitely is important to pick up no matter the dialect. I was rejected for a job interview the other day (for the post of sales assistant) because I wasn't fluent in Chinese!

So there's a lesson. :?

I totally understand how you feel!

[bp_ffei]

LOL.. nowadays.. even in US.. Chinese classes is held in school.. juz the matter of time.. US will be replaced by China in the future.. so Chinese will be more "valuable" that time.. btw.. if u can master one more language.. surely u will win against the others.. even Singapore A-lvl also required chinese to take chinese

If you had taken Higher Chinese in Secondary School (in Singapore) and did well, you don't have to take Chinese during A-levels. During my time I still had to take Chinese AO-level (which is like... easier than PMR Chinese. Can bring dictionary into exam hall!), but now I hear that they scrapped it for those who took SPM Chinese.

[Daniel_Chin]

Well, it depends on the regions. If you know how to speak Mandarin, you'd probably survive in Asia. If you know English, you would be fine in US, UK, Aus and some other commonwealth countries. If you are good at French or Spanish, you could live in Europe. If you know all the languages above, congratulations, you can kick Ian out and be the next Globe Trekker. :P

[achiever]

I definitely raised my 2 hands up a good command of Mandarin(Spoken& written)is added advantage in most of the world as you can see from the TV a white man who stays in Beijing can speak fluently mandarin than the Chinaman.

When you are in China, you can see a lot of westener working there who are able to hold high positions due to the fact they know Mandarin. :wink:

[sheanyong]

so the conclusion is mandarin is important nowadays...
actually you don't need to go for a tuition class to learn mandarin...
you can learn from friends...
i think that is a better,faster and cheaper way to learn it...
at first learn speaking and then just continue with writing and reading...
most of my english educated teachers are learn from us,their students...so learn from your surrounding...
that's not harmful to you if learning some new laguage,right?

[-ELaiNE-]

I'm from kebangsaan school. I used to attend mandarin tuition classes up till standard 3 and then stopped. Now i often pick up mandarin words from chinese songs' lyrics. Haha...i can't say i know much..but enough to converse with mandarin speaking people and write simple sentences. In my opinion, it definitely is a plus point to know mandarin in the competitive world of today.

[white2020]

i heard some U in Russia just provide Cantonese classs..no mandarin..izzit true??y??

and..1 more thing...most of the richest man in China come from hongkong..which speak cantonese, that means knowing cantonese also can make us marketable??..m i right??

[sheanyong]

i heard some U in Russia just provide Cantonese classs..no mandarin..izzit true??y??

and..1 more thing...most of the richest man in China come from hongkong..which speak cantonese, that means knowing cantonese also can make us marketable??..m i right??


actually by the time u learn mandarin u can understand cantonese also.because the pronounsation seems almost the same.furthermore,cantonese is a dialect of mandarin.quite a lot of hong kong residents are learning mandarin now as they want to survive in china's market. :) so learn both is the best.when u watch hong kong movie or drama,u already learn it what...so watch more drama or talk to others in cantonese and mandarin.it's help!

[white2020]

It's common knowledge that mandarin is the MOST widely spoken language in the world. I'm surprise none here notice that.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm
Agreed. When you say "only" in China, you are already talking about almost one fifth of World's population.

Yea.Totally agree with youngyew..Furthermore China is progressing rapidly nowadays.. :)

i feel so proud for the statistic.... NICE JOB~

me 2..thanks

[evening_go_jogging]

i heard some U in Russia just provide Cantonese classs..no mandarin..izzit true??y??

and..1 more thing...most of the richest man in China come from hongkong..which speak cantonese, that means knowing cantonese also can make us marketable??..m i right??


actually by the time u learn mandarin u can understand cantonese also.because the pronounsation seems almost the same.furthermore,cantonese is a dialect of mandarin.quite a lot of hong kong residents are learning mandarin now as they want to survive in china's market. :) so learn both is the best.when u watch hong kong movie or drama,u already learn it what...so watch more drama or talk to others in cantonese and mandarin.it's help!

i beg to differ though. even though you know mandarin, it doesn't mean that you will know cantonese.

[white2020]

i heard some U in Russia just provide Cantonese classs..no mandarin..izzit true??y??

and..1 more thing...most of the richest man in China come from hongkong..which speak cantonese, that means knowing cantonese also can make us marketable??..m i right??


actually by the time u learn mandarin u can understand cantonese also.because the pronounsation seems almost the same.furthermore,cantonese is a dialect of mandarin.quite a lot of hong kong residents are learning mandarin now as they want to survive in china's market. :) so learn both is the best.when u watch hong kong movie or drama,u already learn it what...so watch more drama or talk to others in cantonese and mandarin.it's help!

i beg to differ though. even though you know mandarin, it doesn't mean that you will know cantonese.


ya..just like those who knows cantonese cant speak well in mandarin also..(in hong kong)

[Estrella]

mandarin is undeniably important.
my uncle working as a doctor in singapore is learning mandarin now so that he can communicate with his patient better.
when i went for the hospital attachment under JPA scholarship, there's a patient there asking me to be his translator(he speaks cantonese) because he couldnt understand the doctor as she was speaking in malay.