Learning Chinese Trends and Developments

A quick question! Which language has more new learners than any other? When you think about it, it is no surprise that more and more people are learning Chinese these days.

Historically, there was not much incentive for learning Chinese. China was a very closed country. There was hardly any tourism! And most businesses, including those who imported and exported, were tightly controlled by the government.

It was next to impossible to get a visa to visit the country, unless you were doing business with the government. And there was really no infrastructure for those tourists who actually made the trip.

Most businesses focused instead on Hong Kong, where English is spoken, and relied on agents to help them transact any business in China. Accordingly, there was no need to go about learning Chinese in the first place.

The free market is governed by supply and demand. Because there was not much demand for learning Chinese, there were not many options available for those who wanted to do so. The only real option was a private tutor. And those can be expensive!

Oh, how things have changed in a few decades. Not there is an exploding middle class in China. Travel to China is now a realistic option. And in terms of market size and demand, it is the fastest growing consumer market in the world. Suddenly learning Chinese is very relevant indeed!


And because the demand is now there, the language education companies have been working to fill the gap! There is now the same choice in terms of Chinese language learning as for all other major languages.

There are a number of factors which you need to consider. Because internal communication and travel in China was limited between the various regions until the last 50 years, there are many dialects. Even more so because of the huge geographic footprint of this immense country!

This means that there are a number of choices with respect to dialect. That is too big an area to cover here, but suffice it to say that for most people learning Chinese, Mandarin is the dialect which will make the most sense.

Mandarin is fast becoming the de facto official Chinese language. Unless there is a very specific need for one of the other dialects you are best served by choosing to learn Mandarin.

Chinese is quite a complex language, and the fact that the alphabet is entirely different to the English alphabet makes it even more challenging. The best approach is to focus on learning Chinese conversation skills first, and be concerned with the written form later.

You will find some great online alternatives, which feature immersion modules to place you right in the middle of real conversations. More so than with many other languages this really is the fastest approach for learning Chinese!