Ask the expert: Mandarin a useful tool

Q. I would like to know your opinion on the value of speaking Chinese/Mandarin.

I am 27 years old and have been living in Taiwan this year teaching English. I came to Taiwan mainly to stay with my partner and her family here, as well as spend time in another country.

I enjoy life in Taiwan however I don't enjoy teaching, I don't really view it as a valid career path or contributing to my career goals which are in sales and marketing.

I am due to return to New Zealand but I am considering staying an extra six months to pursue Mandarin studies. I would like to know your thoughts on this.


A. Generally, overseas experience through work and travel enhances career prospects, and the ability to speak a second language, particularly one in broad international (and local) use, is very helpful as well.

As with any career skill, however, it depends on the context that you are going to be working in. How will Mandarin be integrated with sales and marketing? Do you see yourself working in an organization where your clients, suppliers or colleagues speak Mandarin?

If you can see an opportunity that you could create for yourself by combining new language skills with other work skills then it could be a reasonable investment.

The second issue, however, is the amount of time that you are investing in the process. Six months is not very long for language learning, even though it will be accelerated by immersion in the culture while you are in Taiwan.

If you already spoke Mandarin fairly well, then six months would allow you to become fluent in conversation (reading and writing takes longer still). Good conversational fluency might be worthwhile, assuming you will use it on your return in combination with other skills.

If you have no or limited fluency now, however, six months will probably not produce a level of competence that would be a career advantage, particularly when there are many people in the New Zealand workforce who are fluent in both Mandarin and English.