Why Study Chinese?

Gaining proficiency in foreign languages is a good thing to do. This is the case whether it be to the level of full fluency, or else just to the Ni Hao - Guten Tag - Hola – Bonjour level.

How about Chinese specifically? Is it a language you should invest time and effort in studying?

Organizations which promote study of the Chinese language often target business or career benefits to aid their cause. They typically state supporting rational such as:

• Chinese is the global language of the future
• China has the largest consumer market in the world
• China has the fastest growing major economy in the world
• Global manufacturing and supply chains are moving to China
• Everyone else is learning Chinese
• 2008 Olympics

The message usually is built on fear-based under-tones: you better learn Chinese, or you will get left behind.

From a business and career standpoint, the real answer to this question is unique for each individual, and revolves primarily around opportunity cost. Yes, it certainly would be good to know the Chinese language (and other languages), but what other activities must you forsake in order to free the amount of time necessary to gain proficiency in this language? Is the trade-off worthwhile?

For a very small percentage of the population, the answer is yes. But, for most people, the answer definitely is no.

So, is Chinese the global language of the future? Probably not, for a number of linguistic and societal reasons. More on this later.

Will knowing the language benefit your business or career? Probably less than gaining other business or technical skills would.

If you run a business which is engaged with markets in China, then you have ready access to millions of bi-lingual Chinese professionals and companies that you can hire to help you navigate the waters. By the same token, if you work for a company with multi-national operations, then it probably focuses most of its efforts on hiring and developing local nationals rather than sending hoards of ex-pats to overseas.

Of course, there are exceptions to these scenarios, but for an overwhelming majority of us, there is no rational reason to study the Chinese language beyond the Ni Hao level.

The only reason to embark on such an effort is if: You have developed a completely irrational desire to face down this absurd challenge, for some completely inexplicable and incomprehensible reason.

This is usually more politely referred to as being for reasons of “personal growth”. And most surveys I’ve seen of people who have seriously studied the language for an extended period list “personal growth” as their dominant reason for doing so.