![]() ![]() But they all speak some English too, so it's not like it's really necessary, just makes communication a tiny bit easier. Practically speaking, Chinese has been useful to the extent that because I am of Asian descent, shopkeepers and restaurant staff in NYC Chinatown often assume that I speak Chinese. My impression is speaking any Chinese among US businesspeople in China is the exception rather than the rule. ![]() Fortunately I didn't pursue learning them for business reasons.Įven among people who run businesses doing import/export, or outsource production to China, a lot of them don't speak a lick of Chinese. None of the jobs I have gotten or interviewed for have had anything to do with my language speaking abilities (which, apart from Mandarin, also include Russian and German), and I have never once used any language other than English in any of my jobs, other than the one time I tried to read a Brazillian company's page about dividend payouts before I noticed the "ENGLISH" link in the corner. Nope, I actually don't know why people say things like "Oh learn Chinese, that's going to be super important in the future, and it will probably help you get a job." Not true. Learning a language is like learning most things: do it because you like it and because it opens up the opportunities that you want to have, not because you think it will result in making lots of money. In *neither* case, however, were the monetary rewards any higher than the domestic English-only-speaking job I have now. Also, for another research position, I was a more competitive candidate because I could speak Chinese because I would be doing a lot of fieldwork in a Chinese speaking country. I got an interview with a research lab that posted an ad for a position that required Chinese language skills- I wouldn't have even gotten the interview if I didn't know any Chinese. ![]() What language skills do give you is more flexibility in terms of available jobs. It's not clear that a shipping broker who's fluent in Chinese makes more than a spine surgeon who only speaks English. If you want to have such a high paying job that puts you into regular contact with Chinese and Japanese speakers, then by all means keep up with your skills, but if money is your primary goal, focus your time on preparing to get a high paying job. This sounds facile, but if you want to make lots of money, choose a profession in which high salaries are the norm. At least, if your profession typically pays "X", it's not like Japanese or Chinese skills will allow you to command a salary of "2X" or "3X". Of the people I know who have made a lot of money, their knowledge of Chinese or Japanese has not been the deciding factor when it came to increasing their earning potential. In short: if this were true, then every single Chinese- and Japanese-American with a college degree would be rich. ![]()
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