This time a few months ago, the average American was accustomed to talking mostly about domestic news, particularly the primary election season. That feels like years ago. But now, as we see the world constantly changing before our eyes, we’re also beginning to talk more and more about the world beyond our borders. And these days, China is always in the news.

It’s no question that China has been on the rise since the 1980s and now, as the second-largest economy in the world, is attempting to rise to number one on the international stage. Somehow, even as China has become more and more important, American students tend to shy away from learning Chinese and it remains one of the less popular languages to study in high school or college. When I studied abroad in China, I was shocked to find out from my other international friends that Chinese was the most popular language to study in their home countries.

But these days, it might be more obvious to Americans that we need to pay closer attention to China. As our relationship waxes and wanes, there are more reasons than ever to learn and use Chinese. Here are just a few:

1. Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world with an estimated 1.2 billion speakers across the world. Yes, of course, many of these speakers reside in mainland China, but Mandarin is also used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos, not to mention in countries across the world with large Chinese immigrant populations like the United States.
   
   
2. China’s economy is one of the most powerful in the world. A study by New American Economy found that the demand for bilingual employees in major US industries has more than doubled between 2010 and 2015. Therefore, the ability to read and write in a second language makes a job candidate much more attractive, especially if they can speak one of the world’s most widely-spoken and most important languages, Mandarin. As China’s economy grows and expands beyond its own borders, opportunities for Chinese speakers across industries are multiplying.
   
   
3. Better understand one of the world’s oldest and richest cultures. One cannot fully understand a place, a people, and a society without understanding how it communicates. I can say with confidence that my understanding of China would be much less strong had I not chosen to study the language, too. Understanding Chinese has also helped me make more sense of topics as complicated as political movements to those as simple as names.
   
   
4. Enhance your trip to China. If you ever plan to visit China in the future, whether that be for a vacation or for work, you can get by on only English. But I can promise you that your experience will not be as fulfilling. The most important example that comes to mind is food: limiting yourself to English menus will limit you to food catered to Westerners and high prices, but being able to read a Chinese menu will uncover delicious dishes you never would have known existed in the first place and show you what the real China tastes like.
   
   
5. Help bridge the China-US cultural gap. I don’t need to tell you about how American opinions of China have gotten worse since COVID-19 started. As mentioned above, there has never been a more important time to understand China. It is perhaps our most important international relationship right now, and having more Americans who can translate China for an American audience will be a crucial step in our recovery and our future.
   

It is no question that Chinese is a uniquely difficult language to learn because it is so different from English: it is not a romance language; it is not phonetic; there are characters and tones. But we all need to start somewhere. When I started college, I had no basis in Chinese whatsoever, and after four years of hard work, I’m able to read news stories, listen to podcasts, and hold conversations in Chinese. 

Chinese was not something I had envisioned for my future four years ago, but it has enhanced my college experience tenfold and has created opportunities for me that I never would have dreamed possible. Now is the perfect time to start learning and expanding your own world with One World Language School. Anyway, what else are you doing in quarantine?

Until next time,

Jordyn Haime （韩新慧)