Learning Mandarin: WH Questions

Explaining the position of China in the contemporary global context is unnecessary given all the statistics provided by various sources as to the success of China. Suffice it to say that China is the 2^nd Largest Economy of the World, which would explain the rest quite clearly.

One of the basic lessons in English is the WH questions. The very same lesson is used to explain the importance of learning Chinese in the contemporary world where opportunities are many but the potential of candidates are less due to a fatal flaw: disinterest in both China and Chinese.

The WH questions will be answered alphabetically for anyone’s ease and better comprehension.

WHAT?

Learning Chinese is not simply learning the language or phrases that would matter in the course of a daily routine. It is also about learning the culture of China, its people and history. Like Hindi, Chinese has a musical undertone and a great history to it. However, the tonal quality of Chinese is far more complicated than any language that exists or existed. The tone rests on the characters of the word and the character is based on the history and the beliefs of people. Such is the relationship between the language and history of China. Many artifacts and historical reports show that Chinese Calligraphy is rooted beyond the realms of the Ancient Egyptian civilization. The calligraphy used had been transformed through ages to the present characters which are modified for the ease of modern communication.  Without learning the story behind the calligraphy and the word itself, there is no point of priding one’s self that they are learned in Mandarin. Therefore, learning Chinese is more profound than what is on the surface. It is not the same as learning English, French, Hindi or any other language. Once a proper comprehension of Chinese is grasped by a keen learner, they would know the roots for Japanese and Korean, helping them learn two more languages in the process.

WHEN?

Now would be a good time to learn Chinese if not before. China may not have always been as prominent as today throughout history, but today, China holds the white Queen of the World’s economic chessboard.  It is only a matter of time until it check-mates the present oligarchy. Even today, many people have not inculcated the interest of Chinese in them despite the growing poignancy of China in the world. In the recent future, China is foreseen to be, by most economists and academics, a ruling power of a possible bi-polar system. In order to sustain in a probable circumstance, it is vital that Chinese is known to either maintain control of China or support it.

WHERE?

It is not a secret that China is inhabited by the world’s largest population. Not only in China, but all around the world, there is at least a 2% habitation of people who are descendants of Chinese origins. Therefore, it is safe to say that Chinese is ever and omnipresent. At the roadside, on a regular day, it is not surprising to meet a smiling Chinese person anywhere anyone goes. Would it not be awkward to avoid such acquaintance due to the illiteracy in Chinese language? Chinese people now hold a quarter of the world’s population from a 7 odd billion total world population. Hence, today, Chinese is needed everywhere. There’s no specific place for the Chinese language as it is not restricted to a particular territory.

WHO?

A few years back, the answer to this question would have been prominent and emerging businessmen and diplomats. Today, the situation is at a turning point. It does no harm for anyone and everyone to be literate in the Chinese language.  An example for the imminent need in Chinese can be seen in a local context. Bills have been passed by the Sri Lankan legislature to enable students who are facing the G.C.E Ordinary Level examination to choose Chinese as an optional subject from the three categories provided. Chinese was already an option for G.C.E Advanced Level examination since 2011 in a limited number of schools which is now widening. Private institutes are frequently visited by many businessmen and entrepreneurs who have understood the scope Mandarin could offer. Likewise, even against their conscience, some people are forced to understand the importance of learning Chinese with China’s development in the global arena which ultimately results in them learning Chinese.

WHY?

Wasn’t the response to this question provided in all preceding questions? Statistically, China is world’s 3^rd largest country by land area, the largest population of the world resides in China, it is also the 2^nd largest economy of the world and China prides itself as the nation that has the largest army in all three armed forces from the world. With the unofficial Chinese empire spreading worldwide, it is important that Chinese is known in order to communicate with the majority of the world. Since the beginning of the 21^st Century, Chinese began to be the most spoken language in the world, Spanish and English bagging the 2^nd and 3^rd places respectively.  The future is not going to lessen the prospects; rather, it is going to expand and overwhelm. In such circumstances, not knowing Chinese would be the equivalent of social suicide.  In order to guarantee a stable and a promising career, fluency in Chinese is a blessing.  As mentioned above, since Chinese origins cover a quarter of the world’s population, the Chinese language would be important to communicate within the global community. In order to reach out, both English and Chinese can be deemed essential. Today, English literacy is hardly even mentioned in job descriptions as it is a vital and a fundamental qualification in any candidate. The day when Chinese would also be deemed in the same position as English would not be far. In order to get a better position and rise above other candidates, it is promising to be fluent in Chinese. To all the fans of culture and travel, knowing Chinese would open realms yet untraversed. Chinese is not known to have a complicated grammar structure; therefore construction of sentences in Chinese in a sense of tenses is fairly easy compared to almost all other languages in the world. Chinese does have around 60,000 characters of which only around 3000-6000 characters are used today but further observation of Chinese would prove that several sounds are frequently used to convey the same meaning though the characters would differ.

If there is still a seed of doubt concerning the importance of Chinese language in the 21^st Century, now would be the best time to snoop around and clear your conscience. After all, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!