Spanish, or Mandarin??
December 6th, 2006
The following NY Times article, “Non-Asians Show a Growing Interest in Chinese Courses” struck a chord with me. Be sure to also check out this related China Law Blog post, including its discussion thread.
Let me give you some context … I have a 5 year old daughter. We are in that “phase” where parents in SLO talk (obsess?) over where to send their kids to school. Lots of parents in SLO feel that dual immersion (Spanish-English) is the way to go. Clearly, in SLO and Cali, Spanish is the soup-du-jour. My wife speaks Spanish and our daughter now goes to such a school and she is loving it, and we are thrilled to have her there.
That said, during one of these dinner conversations with friends where topics like this are debated I threw out the question of whether ALL of our kids should be studying Mandarin instead of Spanish. People looked at me like I was nuts. I want a future for my daughter (both a personal and professional/business one). If she speaks Mandarin, I really believe the sky is the limit. If she speaks Spanish, well, that’s nice and it is one of the “romance languages” and sounds beautiful when spoken, but I am not so sure I can be convinced that it will open nearly as many doors for my daughter in 15 years as Mandarin would, even in California. Which language do you think your children or grandchildren will be studying in school? Be sure to check out this recent China Law Blog post relating to this topic.
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, China, Misc.
3 Comments Add your own
1. LONNIE | December 7th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
While a native English speaker can command 3,000 to 15,000 RMB a month in the mainland for teaching English, a bi-lingual westerner can make $500 US dollars a day for corporate work!
My daughter is bi-racial and bi-lingual. We worked hard to give her the best of two cultures. Iin doing so we no doubt raised her IQ, ability to think and deal more abstractly and, best of all, to be more open to new lexicons and cultural differences.
Chinese is the most beautiful written language on the planet and virtually every character has some delightful or meaningful roots in history. One example is the most common of greetings: Instead of “How are you?” they ask “Did you eat?”….A grim reminder of the Great Leap Forward and other periods of mass starvation…It sure could not hurt to learn a bit of this language.
Most of my Chinese students are tri and quad-lingual…I know few Americans (we are an ethnocentric bunch once we get off the boat) who can speak more than a local dialect…We would do well to catch up…
I speak Japanese, German and a bit of Cantonese and Mandarin…it WILL get better– I hope…
Mandarin, even in Canton, is spoken by 80-90% of citizens. They might have diffuclty wrtiting in Pinyin and they may charge you a bit more for products or services if you can’t speak Cantonese, but you will get by….
My students can teach you all the colorful phrases you need when you visit…:-)
2. Chris Carr | December 7th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
Lonnie,
This is great stuff! Thanks for sharing.
Chris.
3. LONNIE | December 8th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Last night I had one of the best times I have known since coming to China. I had dinner with four American CEOs doing biz in China.
These guys collectively make millions annually from training, sourcing and other ventures….
They ALL speak Chinese and at dinner it was evident how, in their yes, language helps them achieve their golas: Three of them are single and every waitress in the restaurant wanted to serve our table…
Ah, sweet fluency…
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