1) Chinese, Mandarin is one of the Sino-Tibetan languages. It is the most widely spoken language on the planet. To put this in perspective, without including any of the other dialects such as Cantonese, there are approximately 915 million speakers of Mandarin. Compare this to English, which is the third most spoken language in the world - it has around 350 million speakers.
2) You don’t have to learn Chinese characters to learn to speak Chinese. Pinyin is a method of writing Chinese in the roman alphabet. Hanyu pinyin can help give the correct pronunciation as it spells the sound and includes tone marks.
3) Chinese literature. The written language is shared between them all although the dialects are not interchangeable. Although you do not need to learn to read Chinese characters to speak the language, by doing so you open the door to an enormously diverse and rich literature. Some of the books which are earliest recorded were written in forms of Chinese.
4) As we all know now, the Chinese economy is the fastest growing economy in the world. . In todays global marketplace it is a tangible benefit to learning Chinese, if your company invests in China or is considering doing so.
5) It will help give an appreciation of the cultural heritage of China if you learn some of the Chinese language because language and culture are linked.
6) As China opens her borders for business with the West, it has never been easier for foreign visitors to travel the country, but to make the most of this opportunity for travel, it is vital to learning Chinese since very few people outside of major cities speak English. Mandarin is spoke all over China.
7) China has now been firmly established as one of the worlds superpowers and with her huge population will undoubtedly be one of the worlds greatest economic powers in the near future.
Food. Of course, you can eat in tourist restaurants and in hotels, but you need to try local restaurants for a culturally different and sensory eating experience for genuine experience.
9) China will host this years Olympic Games. In 2008 many foreign visitors will descend on China to watch the Olympics. It is an ideal opportunity, if you are lucky enough to be going, to stand out from the crowd by being one of the few who has learnt Chinese.
10) It is possible to learn a few words and phrases in Mandarin, enough to be polite without spending years studying Chinese in depth.
