subject: Learning Chinese is Good Business [print this page] Learning Chinese is Good Business Learning Chinese is Good Business
What does Mexioco know that America doesn't? A growing number of Mexican students are now studying Chinese as a foreign language. To the exclusion of most other languages, Americans study Spanish because of proximity and likely interactions between Spanish and English speakers.
Will Spanish, however, be the principal language to help you participate in the global economy? How many factories from Mexico are being built here? How many joint ventures are being launched with America in America? No, the language of business will not be Spanish, but it very well might be Chinese.
China has become an economic powerhouse financing our national debt resulting in a lop-sided balance of trade. Your next job, for the initiated if you're lucky, might be with an American and Chinese joint-venture company doing business in America.
Bilingualism, in such a company, could put an employee on the promotional fast track. The monolingual employee, persons speaking only one language, is going by the way of the dinosaur--extinction.
When I traveled to China with a business class in 1997, out of the thirty-five students, only four of us were of African descent. I was the only student there studying the language. Once while talking with the other Black students in the hall of the dormitory regarding the next day's itinerary, we could over hear a group of Chinese administrators having a discussion. During this conversation, the administrators were heard to say, "Negga, negga, negga." A look of comical disbelief was flush on the faces of the other Black students, who asked me if we were being called the "N" word. I was tempted, for the sake of a good laugh, to say yes, but that might have presented another set of problems. So, I told them that we were not, in fact, being addressed in a derogatory manner. I told them that the word "Negga" had nothing to do with the "N" word. I went on to explain that "Negga" was merely a word filler used by the Chinese much in the same manner that "Uh...Uh" is used by us. This word filler allows them, like us, to gather their thoughts in order to come up with the next statement.
Learning Chinese is not only good business, it can also avoid potentially embarrassing situations.
