Two billion, actually. Sad but true. One of my adult students works for the government, she’s usually a health inspector (trust me, you don’t want to hear what she says about that) but this year she got stuck doing census. Most people weren’t home or ignored her when she tried to talk to them, some told her to go away and refused to tell her anything, and some buildings in wealthy areas wouldn’t even let her in (people tend to be rather antagonistic to government workers here). She told me that if even half of the other census-takers had anywhere near as much trouble as she did, there are probably a whole lot more people that certain groups claim!
Ha ha Claire, if you learn Chinese (Mandarin, s’il vous plaît ) you’ll be able to communicate with those billion and a half people, if you could handle it. You’ll also be able to communicate with those from Taiwan as well. The spoken language is actually fairly easy as languages go - no conjugation, past/future tense. Four different inflections to learn which is the most confusing at the beginning. Written is another story.
I started to learn some from a coworker in the 70s (who also sang opera in Chinese) but time was short at work and our homes were far away. I DO speak Spanish (and read and write- also engineering and construction terms). I can read great books in my 2nd language as well- read “Amor en los tiempos de Colera” when the film aired- never saw the film but the book was good.
Keep catering to people who are taking all the jobs away from Americans - with the help of their fellow American CEOs and the government, of course……….
storm-brain over 13 years ago
which form of Chinese?
ejcapulet over 13 years ago
Two billion, actually. Sad but true. One of my adult students works for the government, she’s usually a health inspector (trust me, you don’t want to hear what she says about that) but this year she got stuck doing census. Most people weren’t home or ignored her when she tried to talk to them, some told her to go away and refused to tell her anything, and some buildings in wealthy areas wouldn’t even let her in (people tend to be rather antagonistic to government workers here). She told me that if even half of the other census-takers had anywhere near as much trouble as she did, there are probably a whole lot more people that certain groups claim!
gopuppy over 13 years ago
Ha ha Claire, if you learn Chinese (Mandarin, s’il vous plaît ) you’ll be able to communicate with those billion and a half people, if you could handle it. You’ll also be able to communicate with those from Taiwan as well. The spoken language is actually fairly easy as languages go - no conjugation, past/future tense. Four different inflections to learn which is the most confusing at the beginning. Written is another story.
vldazzle over 13 years ago
I started to learn some from a coworker in the 70s (who also sang opera in Chinese) but time was short at work and our homes were far away. I DO speak Spanish (and read and write- also engineering and construction terms). I can read great books in my 2nd language as well- read “Amor en los tiempos de Colera” when the film aired- never saw the film but the book was good.
Jolly1995 over 13 years ago
Keep catering to people who are taking all the jobs away from Americans - with the help of their fellow American CEOs and the government, of course……….