Learning Mandarin

[naomi24]

Boris has suggested that children in our schools be taught Mandarin. Good idea or not?

Does anyone fancy giving it a go themselves? I wouldn't mind trying it. It's different!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/boris-johnson-children-should-learn-mandarin-in-school-8883579.html

[LazyGun]

The stock answer as to why we learn languages in school is often to broaden childrens horizons, and also to offer them benefits in later life - employment, travel, all of that.

Given Chinas ascendancy in recent decades, and likely growth for decades to come, it seems to make perfect sense to me to consider offering mandarin on the syllabus. Plus, as you say, a challenge and an adventure.

I do know from personal experience that having the merest smattering of a language and making the effort to use it can make all the difference in securing business contracts and making friends :) Which is why I can make myself understood in French, German,Spanish and at least say some real basics like hello and 2 beers please in Chinese and Japanese :)

[Sqad]

LazyGun.......how did i guess, that :

\\\Which is why I can make myself understood in French, German,Spanish and at least say some real basics like hello and 2 beers please in Chinese and Japanese :)\\\

LOL...however on a more serious note, i do agree with your thread totally, in that the expanding markets are in indeed in the Far East.

many Public Schools already offer Mandarin as a language option.

[Prudie]

The English in particular are appalling at learning languages (must be something in their make-up?). Most people of my generation learned French at least yet I know hardly anyone who can speak it in adulthood, Mandarin may be a step too far. Go to the continent and virtually everybody can say something to you in English, strange.

[naomi24]

LG, I'm with you all the way, until it comes to ordering beer in Chinese or Japanese. MTH. :o)

[LazyGun]

I think we have been insulated from the need to learn languages, Prudie, or at least that is the perception of many, by virtue of the predominance of US and UK predominance in the entertainment industry, and also by the fact that we conquered large parts of the globe once upon a time and therefore are the lucky beneficiaries of English being considered the international business language. In India English is an official state language, for instance.

[Cloverjo]

The reason we are not good at languages is that we don't have to be. Other people speak English. Signs in foreign airports etc are in English. If the Dutch, Scandinavians and others didn't speak another language they wouldn't get very far abroad. English is widely spoken so that's what they learn.
Also, we don't start young enough. Many schools make a token effort to teach foreign languages, but not anything like you might want to say in a conversation. It's all "my pencil is blue" and " there is the church" type stuff.

[LazyGun]

@cloverjo "It's all "my pencil is blue" and " there is the church" type stuff."

Fortunately, that is all my conversations consist of :) I make a point of telling them what colour my pencil is, and I do point out the Churches, mostly so I can avoid them.

Sometimes I do also feel the need to tell them that the window is open, and that the orange belongs to my aunt, as well :)

[mrs_overall]

Perhaps ensuring children could learn to speak English properly should be a priority, innit, like?

[Prudie]

I agree that 'we don't have to' is a good reason why English adults are generally pretty bad but I think there is more to it including we have a 'bad ear' or something, our accents are often dire. Also agree about what's taught. I did French and German to A-level, my grammar and vocabulary was fairly good but as far as me and my classmates carrying out an opinionated conversation hell no.

[boxtops]

IMO one of the problems is that other countries' citizens speak extremely good English, so we can often make ourselves easily understood without bothering to consider other languages. I know youngsters here who are studying Spanish and Mandarin to O Level (mind you, mostly private or grammar schools - yes, we still have grammar schools!)

[237SJ]

That`s what they said about learning Japanese in the 80s - until their markets crashed. It`s a good idea but I don`t think that business in the future will suffer if we don`t learn Mandarin/Cantonese/Hindi/Gujarati and every other language from every other emerging market.

[LazyGun]

No real need to learn Indian dialects, SJ. Nor actually any real need to achieve fluency. But from a business perspective it most certainly aids your cause if you can at least be polite and say hello goodbye pleased to meet you kind of stuff in their own language.

And yes, the japanese economy and global influence has tanked a bit. But Japan are still the 3rd largest economy. China is currently the 2nd and will probably overtake the US very soon, and are likely to hold that position for some decades. Couple that with their global asset purchasing scheme and investments into Africa and Europe, and learning Mandarin would certainly be no bad thing ;)

[237SJ]

I agree that a few polite words in the local lingo goes a long way, but I very, very rarely meet Chinese business people who don`t speak English (and Indians - never). I`m not sure that being fluent in Chinese languages would enable a rapid rise through the ranks of Chinese companies for a Westerner - I may be wrong but I suspect Chinese companies will be like the Japanese companies of old - a Westerner won`t rise to the heady ranks of director level.

[237SJ]

A further thought - cultural awareness and respect tends to get one a lot further than speaking the language and in that respect, some people have a long way to go.

[LazyGun]

What are we arguing about here?

What is it you think I, and more important, Boris, since it is he that made the suggestion are advocating here, SJ? Have I suggested anywhere that I think we should be churning out diplomat level fluency in mandarin for all children? Or that all business will be conducted in Mandarin in the future?

All I am suggesting is that it is no bad thing to have an appreciation of languages - to say O level or A level, and that learning Mandarin to that level for those interested would be quite beneficial in much the same way as learning any other modern language might. Since educational syllabuses are constrained by time, it might be appropriate for schools to review which language teaching they offer their students, and Mandarin would not be a bad thing.

Sheesh.

[Prudie]

Kebab :-) :-)

[woofgang]

In Oz (you know that Oz that doesn't tolerate foreigners and expects them all to learn English?????), schools have been teaching Mandarin and Japanese for years, my godson was there with his family more than 10 years ago and learnt Japanese, you took one or the other.

[Svejk]

Yek,yi,sam,say,um,lok,bat,chat, gou,sap. ;)

[Kromovaracun]

I lived in China for 5 months and was receiving Mandarin lessons for several hours a day almost all the time I was there. It's actually not that hard when speaking after you've adjusted to the tones - the only really, REALLY difficult part of Mandarin is reading/writing (which can be overcome with practice) - and the sheer number of characters.

And yes, I've often thought teaching Mandarin in schools would be both more interesting and more useful than teaching French in schools - and has incidentally given me a lifelong hatred for the sound of spoken French.

[modeller]

The problem is even if you study a language up to say A level it still has limited value unless you constantly use it and read books. The written language is vastly different to the spoken one. I keep up with German by reading books on a regular basis but I have great difficulty when listening to the German news broadcasts. I studied Russian for 3 years and it was great for gettting around the USSR but I've forgotten most of it, similarly Arabic and French . I don't honestly rate language learning here on our barren , linguistical, island desert very much. If we gave it some priority in primary education and used native speakers we might as a country get somewhere.