I am a South American speaker of English (native Spanish), and I am wondering if I should continue to improve my English or start learning Chinese.
Studying any language is a huge investment in time and energy and you need to consider what you will be using your new skills for.
If you intend to communicate with other companies are these going to be Chinese ? If you intend to travel internationally then English is usually the best language for communication.
Learning Chinese is probably one of the hardest languages to master if you do not grow up with characters from a young age (eg. outside Korea or Japan). Basic spoken Chinese is fairly straightforward, but expect many years of hard work and memorization to master the characters.
English has the benefit that even a limited understanding will set you up for continuous improvement, just keep reading and listening.
But keep in mind that knowing Chinese is slightly more valuable, as the number of non-Chinese Chinese speakers is quite limited. But only if you intend to work in China, or for a company dedicated to working soley with China.
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I would argue the case for learning Esperanto.
You might want to take a look at http://www.esperanto.net
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Interesting point — but although I don’t dispute the ideas behind Esperanto if I had to learn a new language today the arguments are not too strong.
Wikipedia lists:
Esperanto has about 2 mln speakers
English has about 0.5–1.8 billion
Chinese (Mandarin) has about 1.1 billion
The chances that you are able to have a conversation in either English or Chinese are quite a bit higher.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:16 am
You seem to have a good handle on english from your post. Why not try Chinese. I work for a language learning site http://www.edufire.com. Email me at ehrin (at) edufire.com to get your first lesson free.
thanks