Why learn Chinese
This week is the final week of my first Chinese course, and I signed up for the next level.
I had already learned most of the content covered in this course 2 years ago. So this was a good review with a native Chinese teacher and classmates. The next level will be harder since I will have to spend more time learning the material, which would also be harder. But I'm up for it.
When I was in Japan, I made quite a few Chinese friends. I still keep in regular contact with one of them (as discussed in 3 friends I still contact). Since I felt comfortable with my Japanese skill level to have everyday conversations, I decided to learn Chinese to speak with these friends.
Some other reasons:
- When I first started getting interested in East Asian culture due to TV shows, I had to decide which to language to pursue: Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. I went with Japan first. Next up is China.
- Since China is one of the world's superpowers, it would be beneficial to speak their language. It opens access to new relationships. In a worse-case scenario, if China were to attempt to take over the world, being bilingual in Chinese and English would be advantageous to my survival.
- I'm interested in the rich history and philosophy of Chinese culture.
- Many Japanese characters and some of their pronunciations come from Chinese. Since the languages are related in this way, learning Chinese could even help me have a deeper understanding of Japanese.
- I had a trip planned to China as the COVID-19 pandemic was growing and becoming known. My flight got canceled. But I got a 10-year visa, so I will have an opportunity to visit China in the future.
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