[Phillip Torrone] on why all makers should learn Chinese   A
while ago when he was working in China, [Phillip Torrone]
started learning Mandarin Chinese in order to help him
communicate more efficiently with his peers. Unfortunately, once
he returned to the US, he slowly started forgetting most of what
he had learned. He recently wrote a piece over at Make:
explaining why he’s attempting to learn Mandarin once again, and
why you as a maker should consider doing the same.  He starts
off citing the economic trends which indicate that China’s
global GDP share will likely bypass that of the US in a few
short years. While the stats might be a bit boring he says, the
rise of a new global superpower is nothing to shrug off.
Economic changes aside, he has found that through his workings
at Adafruit and other tech companies, he is frequently being
exposed to more and more Chinese on a daily basis. Between
emails with suppliers, data sheets, and schematics, he says that
learning Chinese is a must for makers.  What do