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Learning Chinese to increase ones marketability
- Thread starter Histogram
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I am not really an expert in this area, but my son has been over there for about two years. I believe that Mandarin is the official language except in two major provinces where Cantonese is the official language. There are many local dialects and if you are asking which local dialect would be best I am sorry I don't have a clue. But I would think Mandarin would be your best choice unless you will spend most of your time in the provinces that use Cantonese.
I am sure others with more experiences in China can give better information than I can.
I am sure others with more experiences in China can give better information than I can.
The most useful dialect is "Engrish".
I did take the equivalent of two semesters of Mandarin, plus travel to Shanghai and Suzhou. Work-wise, I don't think it helped much. It did help in making friends and getting around town.
For me, the biggest shock in travelling to China is becoming functionally illiterate. It's spooky to not be able to read and decipher signs.
I did take the equivalent of two semesters of Mandarin, plus travel to Shanghai and Suzhou. Work-wise, I don't think it helped much. It did help in making friends and getting around town.
For me, the biggest shock in travelling to China is becoming functionally illiterate. It's spooky to not be able to read and decipher signs.
There are way too many dialects to adequately cover China, as a whole.
Mandarin is supposed to be the official language, as debodine indicates, but, in any given region, local dialects are often spoken between native speakers in that region, and in many cases, the dialects are so divergent that they might as well be a different foreign language, particularly in the case of local idioms.
That said, again, as debodine indicates, Cantonese is a good second choice for both Guanzhou and Hong Kong. Cantonese is quite divergent from Mandarin. When I was little (~9), my mother worked in a Chinese bank, and everyone there spoke at least Mandarin and Cantonese, plus, perhaps, one other dialect. Some woman born in the rural part of Guanzhou came in, and, oddly, I was the only one in the bank that day that could understand her, and that was only because my sitter spoke that exact dialect, and I picked up a few words.
Shanghai has its own dialect, which is quite unintelligible to a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker, but is closest to Mandarin, and if you listen long and hard enough, you can make out a few words.
Beijing has a regional dialect, but it's reasonably understandable to the average Mandarin speaker.
Naturally, they all use the same written language, so one can always resort to that.
So, end result, you need to determine where you might be doing business, and the choice will boil down to Mandarin, Cantonese, or Shanghai. You can get by with Mandarin, but you might get poor service in some restaurants, but that would be either because you speak Mandarin, or because you're noy Chinese ;-)
As debodine indicated, Hong Kong and its mainland surrounds, Guanzhou, will be well served with Cantonese, but you still might need Mandarin, as there has been lots of transmigrations.
From a strict feasibility perspective, Mandarin and Cantonese are pretty much the only two dialects that you can readily get language lessons for, though...
TTFN
FAQ731-376
Mandarin is supposed to be the official language, as debodine indicates, but, in any given region, local dialects are often spoken between native speakers in that region, and in many cases, the dialects are so divergent that they might as well be a different foreign language, particularly in the case of local idioms.
That said, again, as debodine indicates, Cantonese is a good second choice for both Guanzhou and Hong Kong. Cantonese is quite divergent from Mandarin. When I was little (~9), my mother worked in a Chinese bank, and everyone there spoke at least Mandarin and Cantonese, plus, perhaps, one other dialect. Some woman born in the rural part of Guanzhou came in, and, oddly, I was the only one in the bank that day that could understand her, and that was only because my sitter spoke that exact dialect, and I picked up a few words.
Shanghai has its own dialect, which is quite unintelligible to a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker, but is closest to Mandarin, and if you listen long and hard enough, you can make out a few words.
Beijing has a regional dialect, but it's reasonably understandable to the average Mandarin speaker.
Naturally, they all use the same written language, so one can always resort to that.
So, end result, you need to determine where you might be doing business, and the choice will boil down to Mandarin, Cantonese, or Shanghai. You can get by with Mandarin, but you might get poor service in some restaurants, but that would be either because you speak Mandarin, or because you're noy Chinese ;-)
As debodine indicated, Hong Kong and its mainland surrounds, Guanzhou, will be well served with Cantonese, but you still might need Mandarin, as there has been lots of transmigrations.
From a strict feasibility perspective, Mandarin and Cantonese are pretty much the only two dialects that you can readily get language lessons for, though...
TTFN
FAQ731-376
- Thread starter
- #6
Mandarin will also get you by in Taiwan.
IRStuff is not quite right about written Chinese though.
The mainland uses a simplified Kanji character set, while Taiwan and Hong Kong (before the English left) use the traditional character set. I'm not sure what's in use in Hong Kong now.
IRStuff is not quite right about written Chinese though.
The mainland uses a simplified Kanji character set, while Taiwan and Hong Kong (before the English left) use the traditional character set. I'm not sure what's in use in Hong Kong now.
Tick,
I have many fond memories of "Singrish". One of the idiosyncrasies they had was the "lah". I doubt I ever fully mastered it. It was more of a spoken accent mark than it was a word with meaning. For example, a friend is telling a friend, who has a car, they do not know how they will get to a certain location. The friend tells them, "Get in the car, lah."
Another shock for me was being a minority. Very eye opening!
Good luck,
Latexman
I have many fond memories of "Singrish". One of the idiosyncrasies they had was the "lah". I doubt I ever fully mastered it. It was more of a spoken accent mark than it was a word with meaning. For example, a friend is telling a friend, who has a car, they do not know how they will get to a certain location. The friend tells them, "Get in the car, lah."
Another shock for me was being a minority. Very eye opening!
Good luck,
Latexman
Yeah, I get all confused about that.
I can "read" maybe 100 or so Chinese/Kanji words. Some I know the pronunciation in both Japanese and Chinese, and some in only one of the two.
My wife is from Taiwan, she can't read any of the simplified Chinese character set.
I can "read" maybe 100 or so Chinese/Kanji words. Some I know the pronunciation in both Japanese and Chinese, and some in only one of the two.
My wife is from Taiwan, she can't read any of the simplified Chinese character set.
"Lah" is used by ALL Chinese, as far as I can tell.
Not unlike the "eh?" used in abundance in "Fargo."
Another punctuation phrase in Cantonese, is "Ai Yah!" I remember the first time reading "Joy Luck Club" and one of the plentiful aunties used that phrase, and I could suddenly hear it in Cantonese; spooky!
TTFN
FAQ731-376
Not unlike the "eh?" used in abundance in "Fargo."
Another punctuation phrase in Cantonese, is "Ai Yah!" I remember the first time reading "Joy Luck Club" and one of the plentiful aunties used that phrase, and I could suddenly hear it in Cantonese; spooky!
TTFN
FAQ731-376
msquared48
Structural
Just because you can speak Chinese doesn't mean you can think like one. Entirely different animal here...
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
A bit of a change from previous posts, but does really the ability to speak Chinese increase your marketability? It seems to me that a translator there should be fairly economic and most companies probably have somebody who speaks a bit of English.
Histogram, aren't there other skills that would be easier to learn and that would improve more your marketability?
English is not my mother tongue, and I fould that to reach a level of skill good enough for a business/professional setting was not easy at all.
Histogram, aren't there other skills that would be easier to learn and that would improve more your marketability?
English is not my mother tongue, and I fould that to reach a level of skill good enough for a business/professional setting was not easy at all.
Not always. Or maybe that's a regional thing,
"Lah" at least with the people I know, is more of an emphatic, like, "Eat faster, lah," particularly from parents, or, "Have you gotten married, lah?" from anyone who's even a bit nosy.
TTFN
FAQ731-376
"Lah" at least with the people I know, is more of an emphatic, like, "Eat faster, lah," particularly from parents, or, "Have you gotten married, lah?" from anyone who's even a bit nosy.
TTFN
FAQ731-376
The Chinese official language is Mandarin and the preferred accent is Beijing.
There is a quite a bit of state regulation of the dialects spoken on TV and radio designed to perpetuate the Beijing accent.
That may not answer your question as to what is most useful to learn but my friend learned Mandarin with the Beijing accent for the several years he tried to manage an electronics manufacturing company based out of Beijing.
Interestingly, he is Welsh, he then went to the US to manage another company there and his young daughter joined the local Chinese club attended mainly by Chinese Americans, where she won the prize for the best spoken Chinese.
Was Mandarin useful to him? undoubtedly.
But, was he allowed to do his job? Not really.
JMW
There is a quite a bit of state regulation of the dialects spoken on TV and radio designed to perpetuate the Beijing accent.
That may not answer your question as to what is most useful to learn but my friend learned Mandarin with the Beijing accent for the several years he tried to manage an electronics manufacturing company based out of Beijing.
Interestingly, he is Welsh, he then went to the US to manage another company there and his young daughter joined the local Chinese club attended mainly by Chinese Americans, where she won the prize for the best spoken Chinese.
Was Mandarin useful to him? undoubtedly.
But, was he allowed to do his job? Not really.
JMW
- Thread starter
- #18
Clarification on increasing my marketability. I am a quality engineer/manager well versed in statistics, lean manufacturing, and six sigma tempered with 20 years experience in the metals fabrication industry with a proven list of accomplishment applying these skill sets. With the current economic situation I cannot get a call back when I send out a résumé. Five years ago I would have the pick of any job I wanted. I don’t know if I am grasping at straws with the belief another language would help. I am currently employed but this employer has cut our pay and layoffs are probably in the future. This is the reason for my interest in another language. Also, I do not have the money to get a masters degree which employers seem to want for QA engineers and janitors.
Thanks again for all your responses,
Thanks again for all your responses,
ornerynorsk
Industrial
Mandarin, hands down. Having any degree of fluency will not give you any degree of competitive advantage when negotiating, however. You will still be Ang Mo. As you originally stated, it may make you more marketable to employers, provided that you are seeking extended travel and perhaps short term living in Asia.
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