Job Discussion Forums

[struelle]

[No Moss]

I agree that learning some Mandarin is a great aid in China.

The most imposing barrier to Chinese is the character thing. You tend to start forgetting characters if you don't use them--this is not from personal experience, but from the experience of some of my Asian friends in the States. Basically this means that you become illiterate in the language if you don't keep up with it constantly, which is not the most desirable attribute of a second language.

[Madmaxola]

[Roger]

Well, Maxiboy,
you may be forgiven to think that Chinese only learn English in order to "do business", but I doubt this is the case.
The individual motivation since 1989 may very well be borne by monetary profit conisderations, but initially under Deng, the thought was that China had to catch up with the rest of the advanced world, and knowing English was tantamount to owning the key to an unlimited store of scientific research, knowledge and evidence.
Those who only "do business" will not last long because the majority will be dealing with fellow Chinese.

[Seth]

i would agree with roger, in that 'doing business' in china translates into bribes, kickbacks, connections, and payoffs. in china, to borrow the words of a wise and learned sage, we aren't just teaching english, we're educating the corrupt, incompetent, baijiu swilling buttheads of tomorrow!

[Ger]

According to the Chinese survivor of the Pakistani hostage situation, he believes that he could slip away because he could NOT speak English, whereas the deceased Chinese victim could speak English and therefore was closely watched.

[Auntyjack]

It's interesting to see that English is the lingua franca between China and a whole heap of counries from Spain to India to Malaysia etc. neither side as native speakers.
Where's that going to take the language?
And does it matter?

[Madmaxola]