Benefits of Mandarin Chinese
- Culture: Learning Mandarin Chinese will expose children to a new culture entirely different from that of Western civilization. From the pictorial aspect of Chinese writing to the stories relating to historic Chinese figures, the language will be an indispensable way to learn about one of the oldest civilizations in the world.
- Communication: Mandarin Chinese is spoken by one out of five people living in the world. Hence Mencius Mandarin preschoolers who successfully master conversational Mandarin Chinese will find themselves increase significantly the number of people with whom they can communicate.
- Enhanced Skills: In its 1992 report, College Bound Seniors: The 1992 Profile of SAT and Achievement Test Takers, the College Entrance Examination Board reported that students who averaged 4 or more years of foreign language study scored higher on the verbal section of the SAT than those who had studied 4 or more years in any other subject area. This finding echoes many experts’ belief that learning a second language can improve not only a child’s aptitude in English, but also enhance creativity and problem-solving skills.
- Competitive Edge: Renowned hedge fund manager Jim Rogers, former president of Goldman Sachs John L. Thornton, and News Corp’s chairman Rupert Murdoch are just among the many corporate luminaries that have been very vocal in recent years about encouraging their own children to learn Mandarin Chinese.1 With the emergence of China as a global economic superpower (Goldman Sachs famously prophesizes that China will overtake the US as the world’s largest economy by 2050), the importance of fluency in Mandarin Chinese in enhancing one's career opportunities in the work place cannot be over-estimated.
- In a recent New York Times article Mark Carriban, managing director for a recruiting agency in the finance industry advises simply, "Learn Mandarin."2
2 Bettina Wassener, "Finance Jobs Hint at Recovery in Asia," The New York Times, September 1, 2009.