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Old 09-23-2016, 11:37 AM
 
3,437 posts, read 3,273,140 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MartyGras View Post
Virtually every large company does business in China...learning any language is a smart move that has the potential to increase your earnings.

It's like asking why does anyone learn accounting when in fact most people don't understand it.


Someone who speaks three languages is trilingual
Someone who speaks two languages is bilingual
Someone who speaks one language is American

In this country students are required to take a foreign language

And every other country students are required to learn and speak a foreign language.

There is a big difference between the two
the Indians are a more than a billion people too but no one is pushing to learn Hindi


the Arabs are close to half billion people and no one is pushing to learn Arabic and yet most oil come from them


why Chinese? if the the Indians reach 10t economy, does that mean we should learn HIndi too?

 
Old 09-23-2016, 11:41 AM
 
14,993 posts, read 23,824,916 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by monkeyjobs View Post
Yeah some people really think knowing Chinese is ticket to high salary jobs.

If employers need someone who can speak Chinese, they will hire native Chinese people, not someone who speaks broken Chinese.
The only thing it's an employment ticket to is perhaps working the cash register at the McDonald's Chinatown locations in SF or Seattle.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 11:44 AM
 
Location: East Coast of the United States
27,427 posts, read 28,505,652 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by monkeyjobs View Post
Yeah some people really think knowing Chinese is ticket to high salary jobs.
If there was a real economic incentive to learn Chinese or any other foreign language, then lots of Americans would be jumping at the opportunity to do so. The fact of the matter is that there is no such incentive. English is the language of money and business nearly everywhere, certainly in America - the richest country in the world.

I happen to be fluent in a foreign language, but it has no effect on my income at all. It does, however, open up my experience in understanding a foreign culture.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 12:10 PM
 
3,437 posts, read 3,273,140 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by monkeyjobs View Post
Yeah some people really think knowing Chinese is ticket to high salary jobs.
in my experience, American companies still pay the best compared with other multinational companies


caveat. the managers should be Americans too. if the managers are local, they pay employees just like local companies too
 
Old 09-23-2016, 12:54 PM
 
14,263 posts, read 11,578,880 times
Reputation: 39008
It was his niece, and I found the story implausible. Not the fact that a fully bilingual person might be offered a great job--that could certainly happen. It was the idea that with nothing but four years of high school Chinese, a student would emerge "speaking [Chinese] as well as she could English." One feels that there must be something missing from this story--such as the fact that the school was actually in China, where the family was living at the time; or that the girl's rather broken but sincere attempt at conversation with the old gentleman led to an entry-level job where she worked on polishing her Chinese for many subsequent years.

Have you ever heard of any monolingual American student who took four years of any language in high school and ended up speaking like a native of the second language? With no other input than the high school class?

I suppose it could have happened just that way. It's also possible that after four years of singing with the high school chorus, a girl could step right into the role of a lead soprano with the Metropolitan Opera. Some people really are that talented. But it's kind of beyond the reach of us ordinary mortals.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 03:22 PM
 
Location: Eastern Washington
17,158 posts, read 56,905,862 times
Reputation: 18462
Quote:
Originally Posted by payutenyodagimas View Post
the Indians are a more than a billion people too but no one is pushing to learn Hindi


the Arabs are close to half billion people and no one is pushing to learn Arabic and yet most oil come from them


why Chinese? if the the Indians reach 10t economy, does that mean we should learn HIndi too?
Where I work at a National Lab, all 3 languages are in great demand. A technical degree (good grades, Master's or PhD preferred) plus Advanced Intermediate or better proficiency in Hindi, Arabic, or Chinese will get your resume noticed at least.

About 25% of my work last FY involved knowledge of written Russian plus knowledge of nuclear measurement technology.

You put the right skills together and you can have something where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 03:54 PM
 
126 posts, read 268,949 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtab4994 View Post
Learning Japanese was supposed to be the wave of the future, back in the 80's, "so you can get a good job". Japan's economy has been a shambles for decades and nobody talks about learning Japanese anymore.


But if learning Mandarin can help to get your takeout order filled faster, go for it!
People may or may not talk about it anymore, but there is still a demand, especially with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics coming up. As the owner of one Japanese language school, we have plenty of students for our, currently, 21 teachers.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 04:51 PM
 
2,007 posts, read 1,271,176 times
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Simple math:

Chinese good at maths and at school in general

So,

Non Chinese kids + Chinese language = Better grades

Because, now at least our kids can talk like them.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 10:47 PM
 
Location: interior Alaska
6,895 posts, read 5,830,845 times
Reputation: 23410
Quote:
Originally Posted by monkeyjobs View Post
If employers need someone who can speak Chinese, they will hire native Chinese people, not someone who speaks broken Chinese.
Depends on the job. US Defense Department, for example, is unlikely to prefer a Chinese national.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 11:45 PM
 
105 posts, read 90,345 times
Reputation: 81
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frostnip View Post
Depends on the job. US Defense Department, for example, is unlikely to prefer a Chinese national.
US Defense Department will hire good Chinese speakers (American citizens with Chinese background who can speak much better Chinese than you).

So yeah, your odds of getting a job that requires speaking Chinese is still very los since there are so many people who can speak much better Chinese than you in any job field.

Just think about it. You need employers who can speak Chinese. You would you hire someone who speaks broken Chinese and someone who has hard time communicating with the customers?

At least with Spanish, knowing just some Spanish may increase your chance of getting a job.
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