Can Anyone Who Speaks Fluent Mandarin Help Me

How has being fluent (or close to) in Mandarin Chinese helped you in your career in business?

If you’re going into business, almost every global business needs people who can read, write and speak both Chinese and English fluently.Whether or not learning Chinese will help you excel has a lot to do with your ability level, the industry you go into, the company you work for, your ability to self-promote and your overarching career goals. You need to decide what works for you and where you want to go; know that speaking Chinese fluently could lead you to a long career in Asia and/or lots of travel between China and the US.Personally, I think learning Chinese is massively important for those that want a competitive edge in the business/finance world. That being said, you’re competing with 1.5+ billion other people who can also speak Chinese.It’s the intersectionality that will make you invaluable; the ability to combine one skill set with another that will make you invaluable to your company.Personally, I had to do it all over again, I would’ve taken Chinese all 4 years of college to accompany my business degree. Instead, I was too lazy to make the trek every day (MIT didn’t offer Chinese, but we could take it at Harvard) and instead moved to China right after college and have learned to speak and write Chinese along the way.It’s significantly more difficult for me to find the time to learn now than it would’ve been in college, because I work for myself, so every hour of my day is either work, studying Chinese or playing. If I’m not working to grow my business, I’m not earning money right now, so in that tradeoff work time usually wins out over studying.My “study time” is instead hanging out with Chinese friends. As a result, my base is more colloquial and less formal, making it easy for me to chit chat before and after negotiations, but more difficult to formally negotiate.So first, decide if Chinese is in your career path. Ask yourself:Is it worth the time?How will you benefit from learning Chinese or how do you plan to use it to advance or define your career?Can you dedicate yourself to learning it?Learning Chinese is a massive undertaking, and not to be decided lightly.Then, if you’re still interested, take a lesson from me - don’t do it the hard way, start learning Chinese now. Practice with native speakers. Watch Chinese movies and TV shows. Immerse yourself and get ready for the ride ~

How has being able to speak Mandarin Chinese, helped you with your career?

“Must be able to communicate effectively in English, proficiency in Mandarin will be added as advantage” is one of the criteria to apply for job in Malaysia. It is extremely useful if you can speak more than two languages here as the major race are Malay, Chinese and Indian.This picture was taken during my employment in a CHINESE Skilled-Based Training Centre. (Notice that I was the only non-native in the team and yep, the one who’s wearing the veil.)Fortunately, I was sent to a Chinese school when I was little, so I know how to read, write and speak in Mandarin.After graduated from uni, I've been quickly scouted as the IT Trainer for a computer hardware and software subject. The job was very challenging because I need to teach in Mandarin while I haven't practice much Mandarin after I left highschool. But because it was a rare opportunity to land a job as soon as you've finished uni, so I accepted it.After a year of working as the IT Trainer, I hopped into a teleservice company as a Technical Consultant. This time too, I was accepted easily because my ability to speak 3 languages (English, Mandarin and Malay).And currently I'm working for ZTE Corporation, a Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and systems company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong as the Technical Engineer.During the interview with ZTE Corp., I arrived quite late so I was among the last ones in the last session, plus it's an open walk-in interview, so I didn't put a high hope on being selected after seeing so many fresh grads applying for it. However, in spite of being the last one being interviewed, a female among the sea of male candidates, and the job scope doesn't even related to my field of study (I took Electrical & Electronics Engineering), the interviewer was excited when he found out that I'm a trilingual and decided to hire me. Alhamdulillah (mean: Praise to God)From all of my 3 jobs, I was the only non-chinese who able to speak fluent Mandarin. So in my opinion, speaking Mandarin gives you more options and open you to a wider opportunity, but then again it'll depends on where you are situated.加油! :)

What do you think of white people who speak fluent Mandarin or Cantonese Chinese?

I’m British born Chinese and I can understand hakka Chinese but no longer speak it as it was my first language but my parents used cantonese as well and I was raised by my siblings who were in turn raised by grandparents that spoke cantonese. Thereafter english was my dominant language since cantonese was only spoken briefly with my parents who had opposite schedules. So what we did speak was the same few things daily.My cantonese was really learnt from watching cartoons, tv dramas and movies from Hong Kong.I did a class at University where everyone except me was fluent in mandarin Chinese regardless of their race - some were white and some were asian. Back then mandarin was totally foreign to me. I’d go places with a white classmate like a Chinese restaurant and they would give me a Chinese menu. I’d need him to read it and order since I can’t read Chinese. The waiting stuff were often mandarin speakers. They’d listen to him but respond and look at me.When in China with them it was even more stark. Some stall keepers would try to rip them off but give me prices for locals. I wisely didn’t say anything lest they realize I was the tourist while my white friends were working there and savvy to their ways! One of them was British but had olive skin and also dread locks (his parents were milk bottle white so I’m not sure how he was produced as I couldn’t find a way to ask his mother without being rude) so the locals in China would think for a minute and then conclude he was a Chinese minority. The white American they’d find a complete novelty. They’d jokingly disapprove of me.I thought it was awfully convenient to be around these friends as I’ve travelled without them and it is quite annoying when you can’t manage basic communication. What is worse is when you look like a local! When we watch tv shows like the Last Ship together, none of us can understand the mandarin spoken by the white actors as it is so broken!

I speak Chinese fluently, but I cannot read or write it very well. What are some resources to help me learn?

While coursebooks and other options will help, to really learn to read and write one needs both three things: curriculum, instruction, and practice/review.1. CurriculumWhile most modern textbooks cover common vocabulary, if you really want to efficiently learn the language, start with the most frequent characters/words and learn them, progressing to the less frequent ones. Jun Da compiled the best character frequency list; you can find it at http://lingua.mtsu.edu/chinese-c.... His bigram list is especially helpful as well.Don't worry about learning all 10,000; the first 3,000 is a good start that will enable you to read about 95% of everything written.2. Instruction. You won't need much personal instruction, but sitting down for an hour or so with a teacher will be very helpful. Ask him/her to explain radicals, stroke order, and memorization techniques. You'll save a lot of time if you don't have to discover all of the tricks yourself.3. Practice/ReviewLearning to read and write Chinese isn't easy - but it's easier with frequent review. Spaced repetition programs can ensure that you don't practice more or less than you need to. At www.skritter.com, you can practice writing, reading, and definitions all at the same time. Or, if you don't want the writing practice, programs like Anki (www.ankisrs.net) are free and good for character reading practice.Have fun!

What percentage of the Hong Kong population can speak Mandarin fluently?

As a native Hongkonger who have studied at a University in Mainland China, my observation is that only a small population of Hongkonger speaks fluent Mandarin, yet an even smaller number of them do not speak or understand Mandarin at all.I will elaborate, but I shall let you know that I consider myself fluent in Mandarin when Cantonese is my mother tongue. In fact, my fluency in Mandarin has led quite a number of Mainland Chinese to mistake me as a local. I consider it fluent when a person can freely express his thoughts in a language.Although Hong Kong being part of China, Mandarin was not included in the official education scheme until 1986 (Page on edb.gov.hk [Chinese]). I was lucky to have received education from pretty good institutions and had Mandarin lessons in kindergarten, primary and secondary schools (middle and high schools equivalent), though I have never really learned the language well enough until I immersed myself in a Mandarin speaking environment. Other people at my age with less luck may not have received proper Mandarin education as early.On the other hand, a very large number of the current Hong Kong population have their parents, grandparents, or themselves come from different parts of China. They usually have their mother tongue in Mandarin or other Chinese topolects, which are usually intelligible to Mandarin speakers to a certain degree. These people and their descendants may understand Mandarin even without proper education.Here are some fun facts. During the 5 years of University in Mainland China, about three fourths of the office staffs, lecturers and tutors I met do not speak fluent Mandarin without heavy accents; a local Guangzhou friend of mine, who have received proper education locally until he finished University, can merely speaks Mandarin, although he listens without any problems. Instead, he always speaks and thinks in Cantonese. These people grew up in Mainland China and received fairly well education, yet they don't speak fluent Mandarin. Understanding Hong Kong is similar to other Mainland Chinese cities in this regard, it is not surprising to see only a few Hongkongers speak fluent Mandarin. These are only my own observations, though they seem to be in line with User's answer.