Learning Chinese, good or a waste of time?

[senor boogie woogie]

Hola!

I am a 36 year old American male from the USA. For those of you who read www.eslcafe.com, you are familiar with me and my misadventures here in the PRC. I am also married to a PRC citizen. I have lived here for 2 1/2 years.

I live in dialectland, also known as Zhejiang. My wife speaks dialect, but also knows Mandarin. Her mother cannot speak Mandarin. If you stick her mother in Beijing, she might as well be in Marked Tree, Arkansas. I have not been influenced greatly by Putonghua. I know words, and some minor sentences. That's it.

I wish learn Chinese and be fluent at it. If for nothing else, it would allow me to speak to my Chinese family members and friends much better. I want to learn the language also because it might be a bridge to bigger opportunities in the corporate world, or I can become a member of a cause concerning Chinese people that I care about. The question is, is it good to learn this language? Can a foreigner get a masters in Chinese here and teach at a University in the west? Also, for insanity purposes, can a foreigner go to law school here? What a great ability, to be a foreigner and understand legal practices here. This would be an asset, right?

SENOR

[Guest Anonymous]

At Rice University in Houston, TX, we have a Caucasian Chinese professor who learned Chinese in Taiwan.

Also, during my stay in Beijing two summers ago, I met a law student from New York who got a job at a local law firm. He told me that he was planning to go to a law school in China but we lost touch so I don't know if he ever did.

[Tsunku]

Hi Senor

One of my boyfriend's American professors at his university in Kunming had his degree from a Chinese university. Western people do go to Chinese schools for undergraduate and graduate degrees, mostly studying Chinese language. If your language ability is good enough, you can take classes in Chinese with Chinese students in other subjects. The cost is very cheap, and I believe with such a degree you could probably have some luck teaching Chinese in the US, like Kulong said.

I think if you can learn Chinese very fluently, there are lots of opportunities that will open up for you in China. The law thing is an interesting idea, and aside from that, there is a lot more you can do in China besides teach ESL if you have a good grasp of Chinese.

Learning Mandarin will also most likely help with your wife's family dialect. I live in a dialect area too, and my background in Mandarin gave me a good starting point. If you're going to live just about anywhere in China, I'd say learning Mandarin is well-worth it.