Last July, I mentioned being on a student visa for business purposes as an Olympic-era expedient.

I listed the pros and cons – one of the cons being that I had to show for class several times. Other media suggested my being in a class full of Mongolian working girls also might have its advantages…the only advantage to me was that my absence didn’t stick out like a sore thumb, as these ladies seemed rather busy too.

Now, a month into the new semester, I decided to go back to school.

Once again, I needed a quick, reliable visa fix. But I’m starting to have a healthier respect for proficient learning of Chinese, even while I continue to pursue business interests.

I’ve been a China expat for well over two years now, and although I can speak and understand Mandarin well enough, I haven’t been able to read or write.

Until yesterday.

I was in class and suddenly I began to make out full sentences of Mandarin writing. Granted, they were short. But I understood a lot more than “Ni hao.”

Last semester, I was under the impression that going to school was interfering with my business undertakings. But this semester, amid worldwide economic and market volatility, I’m starting to think the lackluster business environment has been interfering with my language learning and, thus, future China endeavors.

Last year, the Economist reported an article called “False Eastern Promise,” which involved reasons not to study Chinese.

I read the article back then and agreed with its points. Too many Chinese now study English, facilitating communication and making intensive Chinese learning unnecessary. Learning Mandarin takes as much time effort as say, going to law school, but often doesn’t lead to similar financial rewards.

I surely rolled my eyes at the last paragraph:

“At Search Bank, a Beijing employment agency, Hai Yuen points out that, whereas the value of compensation packages for expat executives has been shrinking over the past ten years, the number of Chinese-speaking foreigners she handles has been rising,” the Economist reported. “Better language skills, she reckons, are a product less of market demand than of a general enthusiasm for China. Reason enough, perhaps, to learn the language.”

Looking back over the article, I notice that it appeared in the “Britain” section of the Economist, not a “China” section.

In other words, it might be advisable not to learn Chinese if you’re only flirting with China. Clearly, though, I’m not flirting anymore. I’m enthusiastic about China, and it’s high time I, and others of us who live and work here, recognize that and keep up with language learning.

Here are some of the top benefits of learning Mandarin over getting an MBA, as I see them:

• If my ventures in China fail, I run out of money and need a job, I could get a good one rather than have to teach English because I’m illiterate in Mandarin.
• There’s something therapeutic about writing characters. When my girlfriend gets angry at me, she sits down for a few minutes and writes characters. I just began to notice this. Learning characters isn’t just monotonous. It’s almost contemplative. You clear your mind of everything when your performing pen strokes. Except maybe figuring out how the heck this character could mean that.
• Mandarin learning doesn’t take as much concentrated time as getting an MBA. A lot more foreign people could go to class – or at least get a tutor – a couple times a week, do an hour of homework once or twice, and learn the language pretty well. Failing to learn the language likely is a result of poor time management and giving other activities priority.
• You could have an MBA from Harvard, but you couldn’t even impress a Chinese taxi driver with it. Speaking Mandarin fluently would be a lot more impressive to him, and a lot of other Chinese people. Not to mention it’s increasingly a requisite to be among the foreign expat elite.
• Your negotiations are going to get a lot savvier, you’ll communicate better with staff, and you can sift through China’s information quicker. More to the point, you won’t be a vulnerable baby anymore.

At this point, I still don’t know what Mandarin level I’ll reach, which means I guess I’m not fully committed to learning the language over say, making a billion bucks. But even with all that’s going on – running this website, making further business plans, and being a medical editor – I’m suddenly going to class as if I were Catholic and it’s Sunday mass.

Now if only some of my classmates could see the light and be born again….

Related:

• Student Visa for Business: In Review

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