Commentary

With the increasing level of competitiveness of China’s economic market, it is logical that many Singaporeans would want to invest there. However, with the language barrier obstructing them, these entrepreneurs have turned to learning mandarin in order to communicate better with the Chinese nationals and make business easier. With the increasing number of Singaporeans willing to brush up their mandarin skills, a number of language centres have started to offer adult mandarin courses to the public, where they would be taught common business terms and how to communicate in fluent mandarin.

Therefore, I agree to a large extent that to further our business opportunities in Asia, businessmen would first have to brush up their mandarin and the only way to do that is to enroll in a language centre.

As we all know, countries all over the world, including China, have implemented English as a subject in their education system. This is to allow their citizens to have a more competitive economic edge in the world, and I am proud to say that Singapore has done well in implementing English into our daily life. However, just as English is important for working in the USA, England or Australia, Mandarin is important for working in Mainland China. First and foremost, I would like to point out that China, according to statistics, is indeed one country that is fast growing in terms of economics. According to H.E. Ambassador Zha Peixin at a 2003 Chinese Economic Association Annual Conference, China is now the 6th largest economy and the 5th largest trading nation in the world. Hence, it would be inevitable that any aspiring businessmen would have to do some investments there. With the availability of mandarin courses almost everywhere in Singapore, I feel that Singaporeans should learn the Chinese language, for the sake of their future careers.

Some might say, why do we need to learn mandarin? The world does not only consist of China, we can expand our business in so many other countries. This is true to a certain degree, the existing countries with mandarin as their native tongue include only China, Taiwan and Singapore, and even in Singapore, English-speakers still constitute the majority. More so, the market of USA and Australia is even on par or not better with that of China, so why place our future there?

People always think that the western countries always reign supreme in terms of trading and business. However, take a look at the recent economic downturn. Studies have shown that the Chinese banks were the least affected by the crash. The old adage ‘slow and steady wins the race’ has been held firm by these Chinese banks, where they are more cautious in investment compared to their western counterparts. There is always this sense of security when doing business in China. Be it working with people who speak your own mother tongue or whether it is the assurance that the Chinese market would not crash as the US market did, doing business in China would always prove to be a better choice for us Singaporeans, whom majority are Chinese.

What I am trying to say is, we should all do ourselves a favour. As we have been frequently reminded, no one owes Singapore a living; it is up to its citizens. Right now the west holds more prospects, but China holds the key to the Asian economic market, probably even the world’s in time to come. Therefore, try picking up a few lines of mandarin. Minister Mentor Lee has been reminding us for a few decades now, China is growing, and we cannot simply sit and wait.

(adapted from ‘my paper’ 25/08/09)

Sources:
http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/ceuk/eng/dsjh/t27161.htm