Job Discussion Forums

[chaz47]

One of my old professors tells me that learning Chinese is a step towards wealth in the future. Is this true or just some scuttlebutt?

[bdawg]

Something similar was discussed here:

can going to china further your career back home?

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?p=331504&highlight=#331504

Personally, I'm learning mainly to fulfill a goal of attaining working knowledge of a foreign language. Why Putonghua? Because there is a small part of me that likes to believe that it will, in some way, be more beneficial to me in the future than learning German or French. I feel that in my current career direction, I'm more likely to find myself in the Pacific Rim, than in other parts of the globe.

However....I believe someone on this forum compared the current Mandarin craze to the Japanese craze of the 80's. I think it is a very good point. The economy of this country will collapse, in one form or another. It is only a question of when.

So don't learn the language with the expectation that it will bring you gold eggs. Odds are it won't.

[clark.w.griswald]

I think that it is probably more valuable now than it will be in the future. Sometimes having a Chinese speaking whitey can give a company a competitive edge but as more whities learn to speak the language this value gets lost.

Quite honestly I think that local Chinese who can speak English well (particularly those who have lived in a foreign country) are probably going to be of more value to a company than a token whitey who speaks the language.

Learning Chinese certainly won't hurt, but I don't think that it will make you rich either!

[thepreferrednomenclature]

Let's just say this: if I were an American company looking to do work in China, I know I'd much rather have an American who can speak fluent Chinese to assist with the representation process, rather than an English speaking Chinese person. Does anyone really think that a Chinese national would aggressively negotiate against a fellow countryman? Too easy for your local English speaking Chinese negotiator to make a side deal. Be much easier to trust your own countryman.

The opposite is equally true, I'm sure I would never be able to negotiate against my own nationals on behalf of the Chinese.

Also, I think translation skills are a dime a dozen. You'll need other skills and experience to go along with language fluency. My ten cents.

[chaz47]

It seems that the only true pot of gold at the end of the "learning Chinese" rainbow is an academic job, er... a professor, ? ? ? Would that be so bad?

[tarzaninchina]

I can speak English, French, German, and now Mandarin. I want to double that number before I double my age.

Learning languages makes me happy because I get to experience more of humanity (and the dirty truths, I know), which is one of the biggest thing I want out of life.

[7969]

i cant see any downside to learning chinese, unless it cuts too much into your tv and dvd watching.

[sheeba]

[chaz47]

bump