Don't understand the obsession about wanting to learn Chinese (Mandarin) (degree, maths)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My child is learning Mandarin. She's 7. She's in an immersion program so she hears it all day.The kids have not had any trouble learning it. In fact, she was able to tell us what was on the back of the jackets on the Chinese Gymnastics team during the Olympics.
I googled but could not find a picture of the back of the gymnastics jackets in particular. Were they the same as this one? Yes, as you might expect, that says "China."
Actually, one noticeable aspect of the Japanese languages is that the subject is assumed and dropped most of the time in a sentence. Which becomes extremely difficult when it comes to translation, but I digress.
In Japanese, you can almost always tell from the verb forms and other words in the sentence, together with the context, whether the subject is I, you, or a third party.
I'm not going to downplay this. It was hands down the most difficult aspect of Japanese for me. But it's not really true that this makes translation difficult, because once you've mastered it, the meaning is usually crystal clear. For example,
"Hon o kudasaimashta" (gave a book) must mean that either you or a third party gave me a book, and implies a level of formality (i.e. the agent was not my husband or younger brother).
This sentence cannot mean that I gave someone else a book, which would be a different word altogether.
I took piano lessons and ballet for several years growing up. I do not do them professionally now, nor have I touched a piano in ... oh, probably two decades. Was that a waste of time? Should children not take music lessons unless it's to train them for a job?
is piano lesson given in schools? I thought that's a personal decision by you and your parents.
I googled but could not find a picture of the back of the gymnastics jackets in particular. Were they the same as this one? Yes, as you might expect, that says "China."
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
Actually accounting probably is easier to learn than Chinese.
I personally wasted too much time trying to learn different languages and finally settled to Spanish.
I tried to learn French, Portuguese, Italian and German. And gave up on all of them.
Speaking from my experience, it's just waste if you give up learning any languages in the process and I have seen everyone around me giving up learning Chinese. I have seen many who succeeded on learning Spanish. French and Japanese.
I googled but could not find a picture of the back of the gymnastics jackets in particular. Were they the same as this one? Yes, as you might expect, that says "China."
Yes, the English obviously says China not the characters.
I know Japanese, not Chinese, so to me it says "chuugoku."
Ask ten Chinese people who speak ten different dialects and you will get ten different pronunciations for 中国. That's the whole point about Chinese writing--it tells you the meaning, not the pronunciation. 中国 means China.
Virtually every large company does business in China...learning any language is a smart move that has the potential to increase your earnings.
Once again - the language of business is English.
Yes my company does business in China and has operations in China, I work for a European company where the native language is not English . Business communication however is in English. I travel to PRC frequently. We require our Chinese National employees of any management level at our Chinese sites to speak English.
You guys have to understand the reality of global economics if you think Mandarin is your ticket to employment - the people of China are learning English like crazy. If we need someone to speak the local language, we won't chose an employee (from the US for example) that speaks broken Chinese as a second language, we will chose a Chinese national that is just as skilled and educated but works for less, and won't be tied down with expat or travel expenses, that lives in China and speaks English as a second language. You also have to compete with the skilled professionals coming out of Singapore, etc that speak Madarin like a native.
Once again - the language of business is English.
Yes my company does business in China and has operations in China, I work for a European company where the native language is not English . Business communication however is in English. I travel to PRC frequently. We require our Chinese National employees of any management level at our Chinese sites to speak English.
You guys have to understand the reality of global economics if you think Mandarin is your ticket to employment - the people of China are learning English like crazy. If we need someone to speak the local language, we won't chose an employee (from the US for example) that speaks broken Chinese as a second language, we will chose a Chinese national that is just as skilled but works for less, and won't be tied down with expat or travel expenses, that lives in China and speaks English as a second language. You also have to compete with the skilled professionals coming out of Singapore, etc that speak Madarin like a native.
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.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.