The Writing is on the Wall: Mandarin is the next big thing

For those with an eye to the global economy, Mandarin Chinese has been the likely candidate for the biggest new language to learn and use for quite some time. The International Herald Tribune just came out with an article (As China rises, demand grows for Mandarin) which lays out some of the sheer numbers for Mandarin.

• Worldwide, 40 million people are learning Mandarin right now
• In 2006, a full 100,000 foreigners went to China with the purpose of learning the language
• Back here in the US, high schoolers can now take Advanced Placement (AP) Mandarin Chinese as a course, and 3,000 kids did this past year, the first year it was offered.

It's kind of incredible that the language could grow in numbers so fast, especially since it's often tagged as being incredibly difficult, both to read and pronounce. Many people start off learning to speak with audio courses like the Pimsleur language method, and then move on to trying reading and writing. Knowing how to speak Mandarin can put a serious plus on your resume, or add nicely to your transcript, but most importantly, it opens up a huge culture (and country) to explore and better understand.