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Learning Chinese - the difficulties and the benefits.
Would you consider learning a language, if it meant improving your job prospects nationally, internationally and globally? Would you consider learning a new language, if it made you, one of the the 1.3 billion who speak it today (one fifth of the world’s population)? Would you consider learning Chinese 中文?
At a recent Global Irish Economic Forum – it was asked: should we be embracing the Chinese language?
It was highlighted by a business representative in the forum that Irish people should be learning Chinese to equip us to fully embrace the possibilities for trade with the surging Asian economy.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny went on to tell those attending that he had noticed a young man “in an elevator the other day with headphones on”. Kenny asked him if he was listening to the radio. “No, I’m learning Chinese,” the young man apparently told the Taoiseach.
However, despite this encouraging sign of a Celtic cub embracing Chinese, said Kenny, it was a very difficult language to learn. “It is not as simple as learning a language with Celtic roots,” he said, concluding that while it might be easy enough to grasp a conversational level of spoken Chinese, it would take “years” to learn Chinese writing. He said that it was “up to schools” what secondary languages they decide to teach.
That young man in the elevator obviously recognises the importance and relevance of the Chinese language in the world today or perhaps he intends to travel to any number of countries where Chinese is the official language – like it is, in the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore amongst others.
Perhaps he knows that it is one of the six official languages of the UN or that China is a serious world power. Perhaps he realises that we will be looking to supply many services to the Chinese over the next few decades – making it the language of the future. Afterall there are now more Chinese people on-line than Americans!Economic forecasters believe that: clever countries that embrace this amazing language will have a huge economic edge.
How difficult is it?
Yes, it can be difficult for westerners – and even Chinese people admit how difficult it can be to learn (and they are actually proud of this, by the way!) I have heard words like ‘incomprehensible’ and ‘heart-breaking to learn’ used by those who have undertaken classes. They also say, like many others: it really is ‘a beautiful language’.
Let’s break it down:
• The writing system is beautiful to look at and intriguing but ridiculous at the same time.
• A huge number of the characters have to be learnt off. Some say there are over 50,000 but you could get by on 2,000!
• Within the Chinese writing system there are two sets of characters: the traditional and the simplified characters adapted by those in the People’s Republic of China.
• The writing system is not phonetic. You can’t spell it out phonetically. It must be learnt off. In other words, the sound does not help you write it. The good news is that the Chinese do have a way of writing how a character should be pronounced. This is pin-yin, like a phonetic alphabet.
• You have to ‘learn’ how to learn Chinese!
Courses:
If you like languages, like a challenge, and seriously want to up-skill your curriculum vitae; you can avail of a number of different courses:
Procad Training offer a ‘Chinese for Business’ twelve week course, which covers common situations that you might find yourself in when traveling on business to a Chinese speaking country or when engaging with a native speaker.
The Old Bawn Community School have a native Chinese tutor delivering a Chinese Language and Culture course.
Sandford Languages Institute run a twelve week Chinese course in the evening. It is for absolute beginners.
In UCC you can do an honours degree in International Commerce with Chinese Studies. Whilst in DIT, you can study Chinese with International Business. Both these courses recognise that as China emerges as a superpower in the world of International trade, it is increasingly important for Ireland to have home-grown graduates fluent in Chinese and familiar with Chinese culture and business.
You might be thinking that since the Chinese are putting huge emphasis on learning English; we’ll just let them do the talking instead when it comes to business! Think about it this way: if you do take on a Chinese language course you will never have to order your Chinese by number again! And one more thing… Scientists have shown that those who speak Chinese have significant greater density of grey and white matter. So speaking Chinese makes you smarter – including those who even try learn it!
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