8:00 am ET
Aug 17, 2011


Should My Kid Learn Mandarin Chinese?

    • Q: Should My Kid Learn Mandarin Chinese?

      A: No. There are a quadzillion Chinese who speak perfect English and Mandarin Chinese. No one is going to need your kid to fill a linguistic need.

    • The vast majority of those "quadzillion" Chinese aren't Americans with access to American education, values, politics, and everything else being American gets you.

      So yeah, it's likely that his skills can come in handy at some point, if he chooses to use them.

    • These articles always crack me up, no offense to the author. So, No our children shouldn't learn Chinese over the many more prevalent languages spoken around us every day.

      I can remember a time when Japan was an economic powerhouse and it was widely publicized they were buying up U.S. real estate, purchasing large amounts of treasuries, stockpiling dollars, sound familiar?? Everyone needed to learn Japanese, Japanese people were showing up in TV shows, TV commercials and articles ad nauseam about Japan, etc. then what happened, their economy burst. We don't talk about Japan too much anymore.

      The Chinese economy is on a similar path to implosion and the tremendous numbers of poor Chinese who are and will become disenfranchised with their economic plight will refuse to participate in the system as it exists today. China is the "in" culture today. I wonder who it will be tomorrow???

    • If you do just a bit of research, you will find a few very good books on raising bilingual children. It is pretty easy, really, if you start very early (from birth). Our child speaks flawlessly in both languages. It sounds like the author here took somewhat of a random walk down this path, and achieved the expected results.

    • Completely lost as to the message of this article.

    • I am a Caucasian fluent in Mandarin and married to a Chinese woman who immigrated to the US as an adult. Our 2 children go to Mandarin - English bilingual schools. They have never spoken Chinglish and I'll tell you why: I have never spoken Mandarin with them. Studies have shown that if parents consistently converse with their children in their native language, the children naturally keep the two languages separate. As to the argument that there are millions of Chinese who speak English -- I can assure you that their level of English is typically poor. My interest in Chinese has been motivated by an appreciation for China's fascinating history and culture -- not business opportunities.

    • It is amazing to raise a bilingual child! Believe me it is much harder to learn a sec language after middle school~~at least for me !!!

    • Speaking and thinking in different languages is a wonderful talent to have and so much fun. Necesary? No, but certainly will open up opportunities that other kids just won't ever have. If the young one has the gift then encourage it.

    • I agree with Jack. What's the author's point?

    • Teach your kid Mandarin, so when they're snatched away in the middle of the night for unspecified "crimes against the state," they might have the chance to understand what the Secret Police are saying to them.

      On the other hand, I'll teach my kid Spanish, so that he'll be able to interact on a daily basis with many of the individuals who work in the U.S. service business.

    • What a charming little essay!

    • Teach him Spanish. It's significantly more useful on a day to day basis. Especially once he starts going to school. It would have been nice to know what the two spanish speaking girls were whispering and giggling about behind me... especially because they were pointing at me.

      Or hell, teach him both. In Europe it's perfectly normal for people to know multiple languages. Here it's considered a brilliant achievement if someone knows two.

    • I think it's great that your kid has learned to speak Chinese.

      What was the purpose of this article, apart from a personal ego stroke?

      The title of the article asks: "Should my kid learn Mandarin Chinese?"

      OK, I'll answer: No. Not unless there is some compelling reason to do so (such as, you live there, yo do business there, other family members are Chinese, etc etc.

      A kid who gets immersed in Mandarin at 5, unless he manages to use it constantly for his whole life, is unlikely to be able to make use of it when he suddenly has a job at age 27 and finds himself dealing with a Chinese company in a business setting. "if you don't use it, you lose it" as they say.

    • Should you make that decision, only total immersion in northern China will accomplish your objective of getting you children to fully comprehend and speak Mandarin. When and if you do this, let Immigration know you are leaving so you can be replaced by some of the numerous people in long waiting lists who wish to come to the US to take advantage of everything this country has to offer.

    • This article fails to make any substantive points at all, and the title is highly misleading. In the author's case, his son is half Chinese and it makes perfect sense that he stay in touch with that part of his background by learning Chinese, which gets harder and harder to do as you get older; as a second-generation Chinese whose half-Chinese niece and nephew speak the language much better than I do, I should know. How exactly is this applicable to anyone else though? Overall, the article just seems to be a bunch of ruminations on what it's like to raise a bilingual child, with an inappropriate title slapped on by a careless editor.

    • My sincere thanks to the author for his role in creating his son, who is surely the most gifted, intelligent, and important creature to have ever emerged from a human birth canal.

    • Very interesting article indeed, welcome to the globalized world. I'm sure that your child will have gotten a head start communicating with roughly another 20% of this world's population in addition to the English speaking world. For all of his/her buisness and or pleasure activities needing to communicate, he or she would be able to communicate almost as a native in these 2 languages to almost 50% of the world's population. Just think of the advantages your child will enjoy whatever he or she chooses to do in the future.

      For those who commented what happened to Japan in the 80's, I pondered the same question and realized that the difference is the size of the Chinese market place. The population and expected size of the Chinese market place is roughly 10 times Japan's market place and possible 4 times the size of the US market place. Need I say more ? There is an old Chinese saying that, a frog at bottom of a well sees only that portion of the sky visible at top of the well. You all be the judge of what that means.

      On Chinese TV programs, I see couple of caucasian and African faces who speak fluent mandrian Chinese. They are having a tremendas impact in China. In my limited ways, I will attempt to do the smae here in the US serving as a cultural bridge.

    • No, he should just stick with native English as an American and go to Beijing or Madrid or Paris to learn that city's best accented native language after undergraduate. I see plenty of adult expats who pick up flawless mandarin by immersing themselves in Beijing for a minimum of two months. I am very against the grandiose fantasies attached to raising a bilingual child. He/She won't be the next POTUS simply by being a Third Culture Kid.

    • I really enjoyed this article - except for one thing which I will come to later. For my part, learning a second language (Japanese) has kept me gainfully and happily employed when others around me were losing their jobs. Prior to the economic collapse of 2008, I was actually turning down work. Only recently have the calls started coming again though I've remained employed without interruption. I was also slated to start teaching at a private college but, the collapse put that on at least temporary hold.

      I especially enjoyed your comment relative to language-learning and math and science. Coming to Japanese relatively late in life; I treated like learning math again and, as my sensei once wisely counseled, "as an edifying hobby." I earned both post-graduate BA and Masters degrees and, my fascination with Japanese language and culture as well as other East-Asian cultures continues unabated. If I was just a few years younger - I would definitely be studying Mandarin and perhaps even Korean. As it is, my work schedule makes it tough enough to just keep up with Japanese.

      As for the part of your article I did not enjoy; frankly the thought of nanny singing songs extolling Mao sent chills down my spine. I apologize for waxing political but, he was a mass-murdering monster not someone to admire.

      Nevertheless, I strongly encourage any and all people, especially young people to learn a foreign language. I also speak reasonable German and, along with the economic advantages I mentioned - visiting another country where you have at least some knowledge of the language and culture enhances the experience by orders of magnitude.

      Thank you for your excellent article.

    • So are Chinese going stereotype your son or throw racism at his face?

      I mean Chinese growing up USA face all sorts of discrimnations and racism, so should YOU as american and your son face same equal treament

      West has done its shares of plundering and hegemonic influences in China and Asia

    • Its no wonder , does author every bring up fact is what up with all these WHITE guys going into china, marry chinese girl, and then pound ground thinking they ARE CHINESE and know everything about it ?

      These white expats have no clue

    • So...the boy was born in China, has Chinese ancestry, with Chinese relatives, and yet somehow, the idea of him "not" learning Chinese is an issue? Apparently, Chinese people should just not speak Chinese anymore -- only English and Spanish.

    • Just for the record, as I pointed out in the WSJ rendering of this article...

      The reason why I stopped reading after the first sentence: "I started to truly appreciate the power of early childhood Chinese-language education when our son, at the age of two, started speaking English wrong."

      I think the author meant to write, "... at the age of two, started speaking English wrong[ly]." At least his son was two when he was having trouble learning English syntax. Obviously the author needs to go back to middle school to learn his adverbs!

    • What a superficial - and sad - article!
      There is plenty of literature about raising polyglot kids. My three kids learned 3 languages at home (mom's, dad's and local), and from there they have have learned a couple more!
      The ability to speak - and think - in more than one language is a bliss. It opens up new ways of interpreting and understanding what's around you. It's the path to real globalization - and world true integration, thru understanding and respect of all cultures.

    • Move to China there is no other places where Mandarin skills are required. Here is the career path of people who speak Mandarin Chinese as 2nd language:
      1) Make less money,
      a) Compared to western standards, native Mandarin speakers, are low wage earners.
      b) “Why hire a foreigner who speaks Chinese when I can get 5 Chinese people who speak English for the same price?”
      2) Lower your health and living standards, even with the most lucrative pay package it is impossible to get around tainted products, polluted skies and waters, socially excepted poor hygiene practices of piers, and many other inconveniences.
      3) Working in China means subjecting yourself to a work environment where co-workers will switch industries without giving thought to overall career, rather just chase very minimal pay increases. You can imagine how that might affect your career.
      4) Yes economically China looks like the future, but the future for whom? There is no political future for China. Too much risk associated with that future, best case CCP gets rich-- worst case foreigners in China go down like a ball in flames (1949 any one?), Then what’s your Mandarin going to do?
      Even if you are the best of the best Mandarin speakers (HSK 11), highlight your other Knowledge Skills and Abilities when looking for that next career step.
      I have learned Chinese, I live in China, the beer is cheap and women beautiful. I enjoy reading Chinese classics, and studying Chinese Language and Culture. Chinese is a cool language. BUT Chinese is not for those who value a career path.

    • Foreign languages are no longer an asset. This has nothing to do with American chauvinism. Soon we'll have mobile devices to do the job for us. Look at Google Translate. Not perfect but is works OK and is getting better by the day. Ten years ago it didn't exist. Wait another 10 years. Learning a language will be considered a waste or time. Don't believe those dinosaur educators who tell you otherwise - heck, some even encourage students to learn Latin or Greek. We can put our minds to more productive uses than learning languages.

    • Chinese is my first language but the education in my country forces English to be the first language, I know some Japanese due to my interest, and I know some Chinese dialects as well, the result of all these is, I ended up bad in all the languages I know

    • Your child should learn Mandarin and Spanish. That way his or her future employment will be assured as an interlocutor between the people who own this country and the people who live here.

    • I'm half Chinese/French (dad is American born Chinese, mom was born in Lyon) and grew up in both Hong Kong and Cambridge, Massachusetts. I can read, write, and speak Mandarin, Cantonese, English, and French fluently. Anyways, should your child learn Mandarin Chinese? Absolutely! The more languages you know the merrier! I don't even know what else to say besides that.

    • The book looks fun, even if the article is pretty banal. I was brought up multilingual (as most Europeans are, except for luddite Brits), and have now picked up a bit of mandarin. my languages have been fun to use and know, but not that practically useful. I often think it would have been useful to learn Chinese it from an earlier age as i might have learned it better, but at the same time this is only going to be useful if i want to be a sinologist or something. as others have pointed out here, there are thousands upon thousands of bright young Chinese who will work for cheaper than any expat and speak great English. Sure, learn Chinese, the earlier the better, but at the same time don't assume this is going to somehow be your golden ticket. perfect something else and make this a skill on top.

    • Interesting assortment of opinions, although I, like one or more other readers am curious as to the point--that your child is a genius because he speaks Mandarin better than you do; or that Mandarin is the must-speak language of the future, or you'll be able to learn anything if you can speak Mandarin, or what?

    • It would be a crime not to take advantage of your situation and have your child learn Mandarin. It seems like you're wallowing on your own lack of ability or the inconveniences that you might experience in the present over more than pushing to open a world of future opportunities of your son. I don't think it's the question of whether or not your kid should learn Chinese. It's the question of whether or not you're up to the challenge.

    • This was a lovely perspective. You kids should learn Chinese, Spanish, any other language if only to open up their world to yet another way to think about the world, another playground. It's a lovely, lovely way to think about all the different things we might want for our kids: to learn music, to learn art, to learn to communicate, without ever necessarily having to connect it to making them more "job ready." The world is so big and amazing, who wouldn't want to introduce their children to that, to the possibilities of their playground.

    • Anyone who believes that fluency in English and Chinese will guarantee a child's success is kidding themselves. But a lawyer or accountant, for example, who speaks both languages will clearly have a huge advantage over one who only speaks English, assuming all other things are equal. In any case, improved career prospects are only one minor reason for learning another language. Some of the other readers have suggested far more valuable reasons above.

    • This article is lacking in focus. Like many readers, I wonder, "What is the point?" I think the problem is that the writer is taking a snapshot into his child's learning of Chinese and pointing out the difficulties. The fact that he made a mistake in English at age 2 is normal when a child grows up blilingual; he won't make that mistake at age 5 (it should be noted that monolingual children also make grammatical mistakes at that age without any other language to blame it on). Again, though, it seems like this article may be trying to discourage teaching Chinese to children (or maybe not, it's truly all over the place), in which case, I think it's unconvincing (or maybe not). :-)

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