Learn Chinese – Challenging but Possible
As China rose to economic dominance, there was a dramatic boom in Mandarin courses in Singapore. Everyone is simply flocking to language learning schools to learn Chinese. If you want to do business with the Chinese a vital step is to speak their language so that you can start to think the way they do. Remember how Mark Zuckerberg surprised the Chinese when he spoke their language for about 30 minutes at Tsinghua University in Beijing? The Facebook CEO’s efforts at Mandarin were nowhere near perfect but it was highly appreciated.
The challenges of learning Chinese
It is generally assumed that Chinese is a difficult language to learn but the challenge can be overcome by enrolling in Mandarin courses in Singapore. In fact, many foreigners have learned Chinese by choice and they did it successfully while in Singapore. People in Singapore are receiving so many encouragements not only from the government but society. There are lots of Chinese communities in Singapore and it is interesting to understand their culture by learning their language. Unlike English, Mandarin is a tonal language. If you will listen closely to how the native Chinese speak, you will notice that a change in tonal inflection means a change in word or a change in its meaning. However, there is no challenge that cannot be overcome particularly if you’ve got an excellent teacher who will help you learn Chinese. There is no dearth for qualified language teachers who make the Mandarin courses Singapore fun and exciting to learn.
Writing in Chinese is another major challenge besides the difficulty of learning how to speak the language. If you will look at the way Chinese words are written, there is obviously no similarity to the English alphabet. There are no spaces in between the Chinese characters with no commas or periods that will tell you when it ends or where it begins. However this should not discourage you because once you learn to write in Chinese you are phenomenal. It will be an extremely satisfying achievement and though you will initially think that it is impossible, it certainly isn’t because you have the support of qualified teachers who will share their knowledge. Once you are able to decipher the meaning of the Chinese characters in Singapore, you will no longer need to click on the translate button of your computer to read a Chinese document.
As China continues to rise as economic power in the world, the most logical thing you can do while in Singapore is to study the language. It will be very important when you want to work for or work with Chinese businessmen. On the other hand, many Chinese are also trying to learn English and they also consider it a challenge. In Singapore there is a wide range of languages and dialects used but English and Mandarin are dominant. This makes language learning more encouraging because there will always be a native speaker to converse with. It certainly does not hurt to be multi-lingual when you return to your home country.
