In an increasingly interconnected world, where global communication is the norm, being able to speak more than one language is an essential skill. Among the plethora of Asian language courses offered by City Lit, Chinese stands out as a particularly attractive choice. With over a billion native speakers and a rich cultural heritage, here are three compelling reasons to learn Chinese.
Gateway to Opportunities
China's meteoric rise as a global economic powerhouse has transformed the dynamics of international business. Proficiency in Mandarin, the most widely spoken Chinese dialect, can open professional and personal doors.
As multinational corporations expand their reach into the East, the ability to hold even a basic conversation in Chinese can give you a competitive edge in sectors ranging from finance and trade to technology and tourism.
Whether negotiating deals, building partnerships, or even just making the effort to greet a Chinese client or colleague in their language, your ability to communicate in Chinese can position you as a sought-after asset in a competitive global job market.
Cultural Understanding and Exploration
China boasts a history that spans thousands of years, with captivating traditions, art forms, and philosophies. Mastery of the language offers an intimate connection to the nuances of Chinese thought and expression, enabling you to engage with classic texts like the works of Confucius or enjoy modern works by Nobel Prize winning authors like Mo Yan in their original language.
There’s also an exciting world of Chinese cinema to be discovered from classics like Zhang Shichuan’s 1922 ‘Romance of a Fruit Peddler 劳工之爱情’ to mystery crime films like the dizzying 2022 movie ‘Lost in the Stars 消失的她’.
Skills in Chinese can also enhance your travel experiences, allowing you to communicate with Chinese speakers in their own country. Non-Chinese speaking tourists are often confined on their visits to China to the world of their guidebook or tour guide. But with even beginners’ level Chinese and the ability to read a few characters, you can start striking out independently to discover your own China.
It Might Not Be as Hard as You’d Imagined!
Many aspects of learning Chinese will provide cognitive challenges. Its intricate writing system and tonal intonation system will be completely new to those learning an Asian language for the very first time. But it won’t necessarily be an uphill struggle all the way.
May aspects of Chinese grammar can seem either very similar or comparatively easy to English. In the sentence below, we can see that Chinese has the same basic word order as English, namely Subject Verb Object.
你吃苹果。
(nǐ chī píng guǒ)
You eat apples.
Chinese doesn’t have grammatical number distinctions like English does, so ‘apples’ and ‘apple’ are expressed with the same single word: 苹果.
Another example of how Chinese grammar can seem surprisingly easy is the lack of verb tenses. In English, verbs change to signal the time that the action refers to: swim, swam, swum. But in Chinese, references time not by changing the verb itself, but by adding little words called particles. Particles are also added to signal other grammatical features such as the difference between a question and a statement.
Continue reading: More on the benefits of learning a new language.
So, there we have it-- 3 compelling reasons to learn Chinese! This is a language that can afford you the possibility of exciting new job prospects and opportunities as well as an insight into the rich cultural world of one of the oldest civilizations. It'll also prove to be a satisfying challenge with some unexpectedly manageable grammatical hurdles.
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