Why People Who Make Things Should Learn Chinese

ptorrone writes "MAKE Magazine is making that case that any 'maker' who builds, buys or creates electronics should learn (Mandarin) Chinese. MAKE outlines the resources for anyone wishing to learn the language of the soon-to-be largest economy and source of just about everything we buy in the USA."

Comments

Or Not

[Aranykai]

China is poised to become the worlds largest non-native English speaking population in the world. They are learning English at a much faster rate than any Americans can learn Chinese.

Re:Or Not

[Swampash]

They are learning English at a much faster rate than any Americans can learn Chinese.

Hell, they're learning English faster than any American can learn English.

Largest economy?

[the linux geek]

What remote evidence is there that the PRC will ever be the world's largest economy? They're displaying symptoms characteristic with a bubble, and their GDP is only roughly half of that of the US. Or is massive growth going to continue forever, just like it was going to for Japan and South Korea?

Re:Largest economy?

[Mashiki]

None. 10-15 years and China will be experiencing what Europe and the US are. Slowing economy, high local debt and foreign debt. China is the hot shit right now, but most if it's GDP is coming from local manufacturing where the party is throwing money hand over fist for them to spend on things like...ghost cities, and all that.

And there's no real shortage of news stories about the number of cities with no one to next to no one in them. Here's a good one by SBS. The real problem is china is still operating on a 3 tier structure for economics, and the poor bastards at the bottom are still at the very bottom eeking out life as dirt farmers.

Re:Largest economy?

[hawguy]

Exactly. Everything I'm reading says they are dangerously close to bursting. I'm not an economics guy so I have to rely on the "experts" but it doesn't sound good. Plus, their GDP is artificially inflated with these building projects they're doing. Google "Chinese ghost cities" and take a look. Strange stuff going on over there.

Here's a few articles predicting trouble in the Chinese economy:

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/175179/20110706/china-economic-bubble-housing-bubble-job-growth-asia-bubble-china-interest-rates-recession-inflation.htm
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-economy-hard-landing-bumpy-landing-soft-landing-and-what-landing-2011-7
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0316/China-the-coming-costs-of-a-superbubble

But we shouldn't be too happy to see their economy stumble -- a major failing in China will have serious economic impacts throughout the world.

Re:Largest economy?

[PhreakOfTime]

Not that you don't bring up some good points but consider this slightly re-worded sentence you wrote;

Everything I'm reading in English says they are dangerously close to bursting

Some of their other infrastructure is coming in the form of high speed rail, with many parts of it functioning already. Rail links to the rest of Europe are already planned and being built. While there may be ghost cities right now, the 'plan' is to have the infrastructure in place for the hordes coming in from the rural areas, to avoid such nasty things like 'tin shack villages' and overcrowding becoming commonplace, like many other countries have experienced when population growth far exceeded the ability of local infrastructure to be built.

I think it is hard for many westerners to really understand what is going on in many parts of China. The growth that was once limited to coastal cities, is spreading into more central locations of the country, to take advantage of the population distribution. Human rights, and pollution controls aside(and those really are BIG things to us, and rightfully so), they are absolutely doing almost a perfect job of bringing their country into a more-than-modern era.

As far as them 'busting'. The likelihood of that happening is much smaller than it was here, or in any of the problem EU countries like greece, portugal, iceland, and italy. Why? They actually have rather sane lending policies when it comes to housing. I have been hearing the line that there is a bubble in China for just about a decade now, mainly from westerners who think that their lending practices closely match ours(they don't), and just by looking at the growth similarities, a parallel is able to be drawn to our meteoric rise, and subsequent fall(it isn't) in real estate.

It has been about 5 years since I looked when I last heard this same 'rumor' of a bubble going around since I really looked at the financial requirements and legal framework, and I do imagine some of that has changed(possibly the restriction on second homes was lifted in that time, Im not sure), but there are a LOT of reasons why what appears to be a bubble in China, is only a buibble when looked at through the experience of western eyes. I won't say something stupid like 'it's different this time', but there are serious structural and behavioral differences that make a comparison between our two economies incredibly hard to do without spending a large portion of your waking hours immersing yourself in the differences between the frameworks of the two systems.

End result, learn Chinese. Worst case, you expand your knowledge. Best case, you(more likely your children) don't become a slave.

Re:Largest economy?

[artor3]

End result, learn Chinese. Worst case, you expand your knowledge. Best case, you(more likely your children) don't become a slave.

More accurately: Worst case, you waste countless hours of your all-too-short life learning a skill you never use. Best case, you can communicate with people that you'd be able to communicate with anyway -- every single Chinese student who wants a college degree has to become fluent in English to pass the CET (College English Test) and high scores are necessary for many top jobs.

English has become the world's language. There's no reason to learn another language, except as a hobby. A better use of your time is to learn to understand thick accents. There are classes you can take on that, and they will likely be far more useful. Also useful would be studying Eastern cultures, as cultural context is very important in communication.

And as an aside, it's extremely hyperbolic to suggest that people who don't speak Chinese will become slaves. That's like saying Frenchmen who didn't learn English are slaves.

Re:Largest economy?

[artor3]

It ties back to the same fallacy that people always seem to fall for. The first half of an S curve looks a lot like an exponential curve, so we just assume it is one. Computers get faster? The singularity draws near! The Dow Jones Industrial going up? It'll be at 36,000 in no time! Travel gets faster? Where's my warp drive?! I grew from 1 foot to 6 feet in my first 16 years? I'll be two miles high by the time I die!

Whenever anything is advancing rapidly, we assume it will be that way forever, when in reality it inevitably slows down.

Here's why

[wsxyz]

It's important to learn Chinese so that when you are doing business with Chinese people in English, you can understand what they are saying about you behind your back, cause that's what people do when they speak foreign languages.

Re:Here's why

[rastilin]

Funny, but often true. It's useful knowing enough to know what your translators are actually telling them you said.

1980s all over again

[Bloodwine77]

I remember the 1980s when everybody said that you'll need to learn Japanese. In popular culture the Japanese were shown as our future overlords.

Joss Whedon (Firefly) disagrees with you

[tomhudson]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series)

Firefly takes place in a multi-cultural future, primarily a fusion of Occidental and Chinese cultures, where there is a significant division between the rich and poor. As a result of the Sino-American Alliance, Mandarin Chinese is a common second language; it is used in advertisements, and characters in the show frequently use Chinese words and curses. According to the DVD commentary on the episode "Serenity", this was explained as being the result of China and the United States being the two superpowers that expanded into space.

Life imitates art, or as is often the case, sci-fi is "Future History".

Re:Learn Mandarin and buy Bitcoins

[Roachie]

Yea, I remember this kind talk about the Japanese back in the 1980s( yea I'm old, get off my lawn ). Ooooh, better learn Japanese if you want to succeed in business, Ooooh, they are going to take over the world with their mysterious asian cunning, that us round-eyes will never be able to match.

Glad I could put it into perspective for you. My work is done here.

Complete nonsense

[sjbe]

"MAKE Magazine is making that case that any 'maker' who builds, buys or creates electronics should learn (Mandarin) Chinese.

MAKE has no idea what they are talking about. I DO manufacture electronics (electronic data harnesses primarily) for a living and fairly little of the parts we make come from China and most of what we buy is commodity parts. (wire, terminals, connectors, etc) Lots of it comes from Japan and much of it is made here in the US. Sure there are some parts from China but it isn't as much as one might think. The manufacture of many of these products is highly automated and China has no cost significant cost advantage.

Furthermore, virtually all sales of commodity electronic components are done through distributors. You simply are NOT going to buy direct from China unless you are a purchaser for a manufacturing company. Distributors have customer service representatives, most of whom do not speak a word of any Chinese dialect. And even if for some reason you did need to contact someone in China directly, there are a HUGE number of English speakers there. I've been to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chengdu and other places in China. It is NOT hard to find someone who speaks rather good English.

source of just about everything we buy in the USA.

The US has a $3.7 TRILLION manufacturing sector and most of that stuff we make is also sold here in the US. In 2010 the US imported $364 BILLION in goods from China or roughly 10% of what the US makes itself. A big number to be sure, but nowhere close to "just about everything".

Charles V

[puppyfox]

I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, German to my horse, and Mandarin to my electronics.

Re:Learn Mandarin and buy Bitcoins

[PopeRatzo]

Yea, I remember this kind talk about the Japanese back in the 1980s

There really isn't a substitute for having lived through something to provide some perspective.

There are a lot of ways the Chinese Miracle could go bad. I'm old enough to remember when Russia was the main competitor and how they were going to take over the world with their superior genetics and technological blah blah. Hell, there was even a Rocky movie about it. But then Rocky went to Moscow to fight the genetically superior Dolf Lundgren and told the Muscovites, "If I can change, then you can change and we can all change and make some change and hope and change and then we could all walk hand in hand into the bright future on the Moon" (I'm paraphrasing).

I'm sure there was a time not long ago when the people of England and France were saying "Those Americans...we've got to keep an eye on them or they'll end up being almost as powerful as our Roman Legion and Spanish Armada and then we'll have to deal with them". But of course, the British and French had gay sex and created Canada, and that did something, I'm not sure what, but they sure like their hockey up there. Hell, they fucking riot when they're behind in the second period".

Anyway, my point is, um, that learning Mandarin because you think it's going to give you some deep advantage in the coming epoch is as dumb as calling yourself a "maker" because your hobby is building steampunk costumes for your chihuahua. If you have to make up a gay name like "maker" then you should visit a tool and die shop in Berwyn, Illinois and talk to someone who actually knows how to make something without giving himself some fruity name just because Cory Doctorow says so. Please. Don't get me started on Cory Doctorow....

Now please excuse me, I have to go freshen up this drink. Did you know vodka/pineapple is a nice summer pick-me-up? You put in a shot of grenadine and slice of mango. Get a party hat. Hell, two of these and you'll feel like you're wearing a party hat even without the party hat. See? I'm a maker too!

Re:How much do you EAT?

[c6gunner]

Why would you need an electric can opener?

To open electric cans. Duh.