Some years ago, Chinese as a second language was something no one would even think of. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that less companies and employers sought to hire people that could speak the language. Or maybe it was simply because chinese was considered as something that would never come in handy. Whatever the reason of this behavior may have been, there is something else that we know for sure: speaking Chinese is, today, a golden tool.
When taking Chinese lessons Toronto students explain that what drove them to the language was not the current usefulness of the language, but their own curiosity. One student said -“I can speak French and a little bit of German apart from English. So when I thought it was time to add another language to my CV I thought ‘Why not try a different writing system?’ so I did some research on languages like Russian, Japanese, Chinese and other languages which require knowledge of another writing system and decided that Chinese would be more useful. Besides, it just sounds more difficult than the other ones. I had to try it!”.
It is true that Chinese sounds more difficult than other languages. It is said that the most difficult part is learning how to handle the tones. Two words that are spelled the same way may differ entirely in meaning depending on the tone you use while uttering it. No, it has nothing to do with the pronunciation, but the tones. Besides, you don’t need to learn the entire alphabet (which is not actually an ‘alphabet’ per sei), since they don’t use everything. The Chinese alphabet is beautiful because when you learn it, you also begin to understand their way of seeing the world, their culture. If you want to open your mind to a new world, you should definitely try learning Chinese. When choosing to take Chinese lessons Washington workers and students can count on many advantages that make learning an easier process. For instance, native Chinese speaking qualified trainers help you get a real insight into the cultural background of the language apart from its technical aspects. Something interesting from the grammar point of view, they explain, is that there are no verb conjugations, for instance.
All in all, Chinese is really something if you are into languages. Challenging, useful and mind-opening, Chinese makes one of the favorite second languages nowadays.
Tags: language lessons