Learning Chinese: A fashionable trend Essay

Learning mandarin has caught the attention of millions of people, emerging as a new must have vocabulary in many Asian countries, Europe and the USA, having many desperately trying to master genius of the worlds hardest languages. Mandarin is seen as a key adroitness for people hitching their futures to chinas economic rise, bringing huge benefits and favours. Since side is spoken so universally, it no agelong offers companies and employees the edge it once did.As China is procession, the world is embracing Mandarin, where it is spoken by one out of every six people on earth. In South Korea, there was an increase of 66% over the past five historic period of students learning the Chinese language. Japanese secondary schools have excessively been offering mandarin courses, the most taught outside(prenominal) language after English. Moreover, Thailands Ministry of Education has decided to let in Mandarin education in all high schools starting 2008, and later on planning to a ggrandise it to junior high and elementary.Chinese is daunting to learn for many, because of the tones used in speech, and the thousands of characters that must be memorized to be considered literate. Nevertheless, this has created a flourish in language centers, educational programs and improvement of electronic dictionaries teaching mandarin, as some(prenominal) countries such as the U.S just dont have enough trained mandarin teachers.The take of interest is high, but the level of expertise is low, arranges Scott Mc Ginnis, an academic adviser at the Defense language Institute in Washington.The Chinese language was once discriminated against during the Cold War, being considered the language of the enemy. Right buffer governments in Asian countries feared their regime would be toppled by the spread of communism. However, there are no longer any prejudices against the language, and even considered fashionable.Many teenagers have used pop icons as an inspiration for learning the Chinese language, in hopes of decoding what is said during popular watched soaps and songs lyrics.Since Chinese is the language spoken by the largest population, in growth to many markets which have flourished in China, learning Mandarin would be a great benefit, since its is expected for China to become a hub for the future economy, commented Yeh, a Taiwanese 8th grader, fortunately having Chinese as her capture tongue.image00.pngAs Chinas economic clout grows, learning Mandarin offers a strategic advantage such as reducing misunderstandings. Even though many predict it wouldnt overtake English as the common language, mastering the language would provide an edge in the 21st century.America Losing Its Dominanceimage01.pngThe U.S has steady begun to lose its dominance in areas such as comprehension, and innovation against Europe and Asian countries such as Japan, China, Singapore and Taiwan. Foreign advances in science often exceed Americas, as industrializing countries are cont ractable up aggressively.David Baltimore, president of the California Institute of Technology and a 1975 Nobel laureate in Medicine, puts it bluntly We wadt hope to keep intact our standard of living, our national security, our authority of life, if Americans arent competitive in science. Period.European scientists have been making vast achievements, such as detecting methane in the atmosphere of artificial satellite Mars. In addition, Asia has been growing technology and innovative wise, seeing output number of papers skyrocketing to a peak.The carriage that America has in the scientific world is being shaken, competed and rivaled by foreigners. Even though many say President Bush is to blame by failing to provide enough money for inquiry, the charge has been denied, stating that research budgets during the Bush administrations have been higher(prenominal) than ever before. image02.pngThe numbers of doctorates and scientists have been falling drastically these previous years a ccording to Dr. Hicks of Georgia Tech. Scientific papers have been falling by 10% due to rising foreign competition, and also a brain drain crisis. The number of doctoral students from China, India and Taiwan planning to last out in the United States began to fall by the hundreds, returning to their own countries. These numbers are significant since researchers from foreign countries account for more than a quarter of industrial patents awarded each year in the U.S.After the kinfolk 11 crisis, and tightening security on visas, I no longer want to go to the U.S for higher education as it is complicated, and would rather go elsewhere.Taiwan and Singapore are surging way ahead of the U.S in electronics, and China rapidly growing on medical apparatus. These cause fewer experienced jobs in America, and a decrease of discoveries and innovations.Several private groups in Washington have begun to promote industrial vigor, and agitate for action in order for the U.S to have a place in the scientific society.Since science and technology are key to economic growth and prosperity, Jennifer Bond, the U.S. councils vice president for international personal matters stated, Theyre foreign countries catching up to us, warning Americans not to rest on our laurels.