Learn Chinese...profit

[Elegua]

I knew I shouldnt’ve read this thread - now my motivation for learning Chinese on the side has been reduced even more.

Pah. Do it because you like it, not because you expect something from it. Keep in mind when many of us started learning Mandarin it was the language for loosers.

Winners studied things that got you jobs like Japanese , were politically relevant like Russian or culturally significant like French .

[Dragonbones]

@itakitez

I knew I shouldnt’ve read this thread - now my motivation for learning Chinese on the side has been reduced even more.

Well, if your goal is profit in the corporate system, then the new list of steps you gave is more reasonable. The fact is that the Mandarin is only going to be a plus on the side, and by itself it’s not going to be your ticket to easy profits.

But, there are other reasons to be learning Mandarin – personal interest, tackling a challenge, making it easier to live here, opening up whole new avenues to friendship and romance, and so on. So don’t focus on the profit potential; focus on these other reasons.

[Brendon]

@blueeee11

Plenty of guys at Microsoft speak English , why where they not chosen? Instead two Chinese fellow who spoke Chinese were chosen. Seems to me like they got their job because they spoke Chinese.

The two guys you’re talking about aren’t selling stuff to China. They’re the heads of Microsoft’s R&D group there. And given their experience, I think they’d be amused to hear that their primary qualification is speaking Chinese.

According to this article from a couple years ago, the guy you should really be talking about is Craig Mundie, who has no background in Chinese at all that I can find, and certainly wasn’t given the job because he speaks it.

[itakitez]

@Dragonbones

[quote=“itakitez”]I knew I shouldnt’ve read this thread - now my motivation for learning Chinese on the side has been reduced even more.

Well, if your goal is profit in the corporate system, then the new list of steps you gave is more reasonable. The fact is that the Mandarin is only going to be a plus on the side, and by itself it’s not going to be your ticket to easy profits.

But, there are other reasons to be learning Mandarin – personal interest, tackling a challenge, making it easier to live here, opening up whole new avenues to friendship and romance, and so on. So don’t focus on the profit potential; focus on these other reasons.[/quote]

Thanks for the tips - the Mandarin was always a hobby thing anyway as I never really expected “financial profit”, the industry im in I is 100% fluency or nothing

For me the truely biggest motivator and simultaneous demotivator is riding the MRT since the more I learn the more my ears “prick” to interesting discussions thus detracting me from the book Im concentrating on (demotivator), but arousing my curiosity as to what they are saying (motivator)

[Buttercup]

@itakitez

Thanks for the tips - the Mandarin was always a hobby thing anyway as I never really expected “financial profit”, the industry im in I is 100% fluency or nothing

Yeah, that’s the thing. No-one’s going to pay me extra for ‘Can read slowly, if I concentrate and use a dictionary, and can chat pretty fluently but write like a child.’

[Elegua]

[quote=“Buttercup”][quote=“itakitez”]
Thanks for the tips - the Mandarin was always a hobby thing anyway as I never really expected “financial profit”, the industry im in I is 100% fluency or nothing
[/quote]

Yeah, that’s the thing. No-one’s going to pay me extra for ‘Can read slowly, if I concentrate and use a dictionary, and can chat pretty fluently but write like a child.’[/quote]

Ah, so you have had a chance to read some of these, “English”, speaking exec’s emails. Excruciating.

[djlowballer]

[quote=“yaoshema”]I’ve found that NOT speaking CHineese means you can only get hired to teach, or tutor, or edit English.
If you are not interested in any of these, you won’t be taken seriously unless you’re fairly fluent in Chinese.
[/quote]

Or you have studied an In-Demand Trade. Languages are great to augment a skillset but alone their use is limited.