There was this old joke, the optimist learns English, the pessimist learns Russian and the realist learns Chinese
this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026
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Just like in that documentary Firefly!
I expect that Pauline will be right behind a mandarin push! Just the sort of thing she advocating for in her mono nation.
Lol trump isn't teaching anyone anything
I've learned a considerable amount from him.
- never admit fault
- never take responsibility
- if you're rich enough you can rape children
- if you're rich enough you can kill children
- corruption is a means to maintain power
Nor learning
I'm learning madarim after having english as my second language for a few years now, it's really good for my brain
It's like violin classes. Safe but challenging enough to show off to other rich cats.
If kids don't plan to work at the mainland, chances are they will never speak at the level and environment where it's good use of everyone's time.
Meanwhile, Chinese would rather you speak English. They probably know English better than clueless foreigner knows their language mindset.
My experience of working in China outside the poater-child cities like Shanghai for over a decade is that practically nobody speaks a word of English.
So, in a nutshell, you're talking bollocks.
Yes, which is why they qualified it with saying not useful unless they plan to work in the mainland.
And presumably, not visit either.
Try buying a rail ticket, or asking directions, or talking to someone in a shop, or even just telling your Didi driver the last four digits of your phone number because he wants to be sure he's picked up the right passenger, with the "they'd prefer you speak English" theory.
And sure, if you're the kind of dumb yank who thinks nobody will ever need to visit China, you're probably right - you can stay on your farm in Dumbfuckistan fiddling with your cousin and wondering why everyone you know is on crack for the rest of your life. The rest of the world knows where the future is and it ain't Alabama.
Yes, but you misunderestimate how hot my cousin in Alabama is
TBH webbed toes have never done it for me, but no kinkshaming from me
Shi man, if those toes were webbed I could quit her
English is the only language im fluent in. I can kind talk like a toddler is spanish and french. I want to get better at spanish first but am definitely interested in mandarin.
Mandarin gives you access to half the world's GDP production and almost a quarter of its population. Next to English its by far the most valuable language to learn.
To be fair they'll sell you goods even if you don't speak the language and they oftentimes won't really want foreigners in their business.
The culture is a bit too xenophobic. Which doesn't mean all Chinese people are or that it's unique to China, but it's definitely an issue.
The real reason to learn Mandarin is just in case they start playing the imperialism game once the US falls.
At work we had a bunch of Chinese partners visit. I had to show them some things in person. One of them spoke decent English but the other absolutely none. I would explain something to the guy using diagrams and careful English and then they would just talk to each other in Chinese and I felt like a complete donut. Would have been amazing to know what they were saying.
There's a theory that world super powers can only last about 100 years largely because the cost of maintaining such an empire is unsustainable.