5 Reasons to Learn Mandarin ... and My Comments

I already stated my reason why Mandarin is stupid. And again.

So, it is only proper to comment on people who learn Mandarin. No, not only to comment, but also to judge. 

1) Because you were born in People's Republic of China/Singapore/Taiwan
Congrats! You just win a jackpot! Unlike any other people YOU will learn Mandarin as your native language! I assume that cut downs the difficulty level AT LEAST 60%. I really hope you consider to scrap that writing system of yours. You know, your logogram writing system ...


2) Because they have fallen in love with it!

No contest.

There is no accounting for taste. These people usually are fascinated, fallen in love with Mandarin because the beauty of the logogram script, DESPITE knowing how difficult they are. I say, GO FOR IT! It is always refreshing, empowering, and comforting to do things that you love!! All the problems and difficulties become fun if you really fallen in love with the language.

Nevertheless, we have to remember, some of these people refuse to admit the difficulties in Mandarin. They just assume that everyone will fall in love in it like them, and consider the difficulties irrelevant.
Also, many people fall into some confirmation bias. They can and have fall out of love of Mandarin once they face the staggering problems, but they refuse to admit it! I still love it dammit, and I still enjoy this! NO IT IS NOT DIFFICULT!

So be really careful when you ask opinion from people who "love Mandarin".

3) Because it is important!

The importance of Mandarin is undeniable. So is the fact that our time, energy, and money are limited. If you really want to master Mandarin, you will wasted YEARS or even DECADES. That means, you can already master say ... Spanish and Russian if you use that time, energy and money you spend on learning Mandarin. That means although Mandarin is arguably the 2nd most important foreign language, your energy can be used to learn the 3rd and 4th most important one, with less frustration and with similar, or even more, benefit.

Oh by the way, isn't it more efficient and effective if it were the Chinese who learn English/French/any other non-logogram language? Just sayin here ...

And you can't be Chinese, even after you speak and write Mandarin fluently. Seriously. Even overseas Chinese (See reason #5) have problems to be considered "Chinese" by many mainland Chinese AFTER mastering Mandarin. If you are a caucasian or african or South Asians, or any other people that distinctively NOT CHINESE, you will be considered similar to a monkey that can play piano. You know,"Nice tricks there, but you will only marry my daughter OVER MY DEAD BODY!" mentality.

4) Because your parents order you! No, order is not strong enough. Because your parents FORCE YOU!

News flash: you are a victim of child abuse. Seriously. What kind of parents forced their children to memorize thousands and thousands of symbol? What kind of parents obligated their children to learn a language that causes a pain in the neck whenever we use its dictionary? The time, energy, and money can be used for other things like ... learning Spanish, Swahili, and MANY other foreign languages!

Usually parents do that because they underestimate Mandarin. Show them this article and the links. Hopefully that would enlighten them.

5) Because you are a "Chinese"! An overseas Chinese BUT STILL A CHINESE!

In "Bahasa Indonesia" there is a word that is hard to translate to English: "Bebal". Usually people translate it into "foolish". Nope, it is different. A foolish person is a person who can't learn. A "bebal" person is a person who REFUSE TO LEARN.

Until today, Chinese culture IS A "BEBAL" CULTURE!! Every other people on earth already realized using a symbol for every single word is very stupid. That's why centuries or even milennias ago they created alphabet/abjad/abugida/syllabary. How the Chinese react to this difficulty? Chinese are smart and clever, they surely notice this, right? Nope. They say how PROUD they are of their "3000 years history." They are proud because their "heavenly language" permeates a high culture, unlike the "stupid alphabets" from the non-Chinese aka barbarians.

Yeah right. Sounds like 3000 years of refusal to learn to me. 

Now, YOU as a "modern Chinese" want to perpetuate this monstrosity and smugness voluntarily? SERIOUSLY?! Are you high?

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My tips: if you learn Mandarin because reason #3 - #5 and HAVE TO learn Mandarin, SKIP THE STUPID LOGOGRAM! Just learn the Hanyu Pinyin romanization and the spoken language. The tonal nature of Mandarin already poses a challenge. No need to compound it with memorizing symbols in thousands. If reading those logograms is an absolute necessity, you can learn it AFTER you master the speaking and the Hanyu Pinyin.

Oh by the way, I don't want to put "bebal" label on any culture. That's why I really hoped that China can change and ditch that terrible logogram. I assure you, more people will learn Chinese after that. I assure you too, native speakers will learn to write FASTER than ever! Move the study of logogram into "classical Chinese", to the hobbyists only domain. Spare us, laymen, the horror.


Further reading:
Don't Learn Mandarin
Why Chinese is so Damn Hard