Does it really pay to learn Chinese?

[Milkybar_Kid]

Hi,

 

I clipped out this story from a newspaper on a recent trip back to the UK and wanted to share it with the board. 

 

Although I haven't done any further digging to find out the exact scope of this particular survey, I'm guessing that it focused on what languages employers 'wanted' rather than actually 'needed'. Heck, if I ran a greasy spoon in a seaside town I'm sure I would think it would be good if one of my servers could speak to the hoards of Chinese tourists in their local lingo, but would it be essential to the operation of my business? No.

 

There is also the small point that you could buy the entire town of Doncaster for £31,000, however living in London on that sort of salary probably wouldn't even cover the rent on a home for me and my family (pure speculation, I might add).

 

All of this got me thinking about my own existence. Approaching 30, I have now spent nearly 10 years teaching EFL in Taiwan (how time flies!). During my time here I have reached an average level of Chinese having passed HSK5 with the aim of passing HSK6 by the end of this year, however I have no experience of actually doing anything useful with the Chinese I have acquired. Could someone like me command £31k a year in the UK with an EFL background and HSK5? Probably not.

 

In short, I would take a guess that the devil is in the detail with stories such as these. Please feel free to share any other thoughts or insights you have.

 

[somethingfunny]

14 minutes ago, Milkybar_Kid said:

living in London on that sort of salary probably wouldn't even cover the rent on a home for me and my family

 

Correct.

 

15 minutes ago, Milkybar_Kid said:

Could someone like me command £31k a year in the UK with an EFL background and HSK5?

 

Potentially, but you would need a proper EFL qualification and your Chinese level would be inconsequential.

[Lu]

Correlation, causation, coincidence. It's very nice that Chinese speakers get jobs that pay 31,000 pounds, but it doesn't say anywhere that they get this money because they know Chinese. Perhaps they're just really smart people who have learned Chinese for fun in their spare time, and they get the job because they're smart. Perhaps they're native speakers of Chinese, and the less-paid of them simply go home instead of working in the UK.

 

I'm afraid I don't know what EFL teachers such as yourself end up doing if they go back home. Do you like to teach? In that case, there should always be work for you, although in some cases you might need additional diplomas. If you want to do something else, perhaps just look around extensively, because there are all kinds of jobs that you wouldn't think of, and that don't expect a particular skillset, but rather the ability to learn and the right personality.

[LiMo]

There's also the tricky problem of using the mean average because it can be skewed quite easily by outliers. For example, in a sample of 5 people, 4 of whom earn £20,000 and one person who earns £500,000, you can get an "average" salary of £116,000. Obviously your chances of earning £116,000  aren't as good as it may first sound if we only tell you the mean average, you could earn a lot more, but probably a lot less. Even more funny is that no one in the sample actually earned anything close to the average. Obviously that's an extreme case, but I'm convinced that that's one of the reasons graduate salaries are supposedly so good when compared to non-graduates, because the average is being skewed by the very few top earners who work in banks and hedge funds. Lu is right, unless we find out exactly how rigorous this "research" was, I'd be very hesitant to trust their conclusions.

 

As far as your own prospects go, I can't offer much beyond what I've read here and elsewhere, but it seems like the window for making significant money with Chinese language ability has closed. Technology is catching up, the Chinese economy itself as well as its work force are all much more advanced meaning that foreigners without full professional fluency in Chinese aren't of much use - or at least the effect is negligible. 

 

For firms in China you can hire a Chinese graduate of a foreign university who will fit in more easily and be less hassle in terms of red tape etc. For firms elsewhere in the world, Chinese immigrant communities and the aforementioned Chinese international students provide a ready source of Chinese language ability along with most other skills you could want alongside it. This means that when Chinese language is the deciding factor, companies will almost always be able to find a native/near native speaker.

 

My advice would be to get yourself into a job where you have to use Chinese professionally for at least a year or two. That's the best way to improve it to the point where it is functionally useful and of course you'll be paid to do so, a win-win. The only other thing I can think of would be opening a Chinese language school in the UK and employing native Chinese speaking teachers. With your knowledge of Chinese and English it might give you an edge, but it of course comes with all the hassle of being a small business owner. 

[NinKenDo]

Even if it were true, the amount of time and effort invested in Chinese in no way constitutes a good return on investment if that were someone's reason for doing it. As to whether Chinese will get you more money. Yeah, almost certainly, provided it's not like, your only skill. Otherwise you could probably exceed whatever Chinese would get you through a year of upskilling in something technical. Of course, then you'll be technically skilled and speak Chinese, so you'll definitely be worth even more, which is nice too.

 

Also who cares about averages when you have no median or anything else to put it in perspective.