Why Chinese?--from
Do you know the following facts:
- At least 1 billion people speak Chinese as a first language. * China is now the world's 4th largest economy, bigger than major economies like the UK or France or Italy or Canada or India. * More than half of all mobile phones sold worldwide in the second quarter of 2007 were made in China. here are more mobile phone subscribers at one Chinese operator than people in the entire U.S. * China has 2 of the busiest ports in the world. * China has at least 6 cities with populations greater than either New York or London.
Do you think that learning a bunch of Chinese words and phrases easily, quickly and effectively might help to build rapport with your Chinese-speaking colleagues and business partners? Don't you know that Chinese people want to work with people based on Communication and Trust? If your answer is yes, you should start to learn Chinese! Learning Chinese is an extraordinary and agreeable experience through which you can immerse yourself in a different culture. Unlike most languages, Chinese has a unique ideographic writing system, which provides visual comprehensibility. The grammatical structure of Chinese is not only logical, but also pragmatic, related to the particular way of Chinese thinking. Knowledge of the written language opens up the culture of one of the world's oldest civilizations. From Confucianism and Chan Buddhism to martial arts and Chinese cuisine, Chinese culture has an enormous influence on East and Southeast Asian nations. Chinese culture has also greatly inspired the western world through Marco Polo, G. W. Leibniz, Max Weber, Franz Kafka, Andre Malraux, Bertolt Brecht, Ezra Pound, and Luis Borges, among others. Learning another language gives you another viewpoint. The word he uses, that is ll of meaning, is Kaleidoscope. It does seem to help mentally as you develop new areas of your brain. It also helps as people age. I once had a fun talk with a programmer explaining how learning a new computer language helped keep his mind fresh. It will also help you when ordering Chinese food. Learning Chinese will give a student a competitive advantage. Chinese is the fastest growing Foreign Language being taught in US schools. "We want to give our young people opportunities to advance ... and [Chinese] is a great opportunity to survive in today's economy."-- Mayor Daly's.