Top 10 Reasons for Learning Mandarin Chinese

10. You’ve always been fascinated with the Chinese  culture, which has 5000 years of history. Mandarin language learning will broaden your understanding of its history, architecture (think Great Wall and lesser walls), mythology, spirituality, literature, music and – yeah, baby – those kung fu movies.

9. You don’t have to think about a lot of grammar rules: no subject/verb agreement; no plurals; no conjugations; no tenses; simple numbering system, which is applied to dates and time expressions; simple conditional sentences; simple prepositions. And no stick-toting schoolmarms.

8. You want to put your good pair of ears to good use by learning this tonal language. For instance, if you say ‘hua hua’ with a rising tone, it means ‘slippery’; if you say it with a flat high tone, it means ‘licentious’ or ‘womanizing’; if you say it with a descending tone, it means ‘drawing.’

7. Approximately 1.5 billion people in the world speak Mandarin Chinese. That’s 1.5 billion prospects for whatever it is you’re selling.

6. China is the world’s fastest-growing economy. It’s a gold mine for translators/interpreters.

5. Chinese cuisine offers a wide variety of choices and you should know what’s in your soup or dumpling.

4. You’re an amateur paparazzo and speaking Mandarin is the best way to get the attention of Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi, who looks so stunning on the red carpet.

3. You want to learn Kung Fu or Wushu at the Shaolin Monastery or the Wudang Mountains or, if they don’t admit foreigners there, at any of the lesser martial arts schools in China.

2. Impress your dinner guests by quoting Confucius in Mandarin.

1. You’ve adopted a child from China and you want to dub ‘Kung Fu Panda’ in Mandarin for her.