Chinese is mentally stimulating and interesting and fun! --- Chinese words are artistically formed by a combination of meanings: e.g., “crisis” is “danger + opportunity”. If you know 1000 commonly used characters, you will recognize 90% of the characters on Chinese newspapers.  Meanwhile, Chinese has a relatively uncomplicated grammar. Unlike French, German or English, Chinese has no verb conjugation (i.e., tense inflection) and no noun declension (e.g., gender and number distinctions). For example, while you have to memorize different verb forms of “see/saw/seen” in English, all you need to do in Chinese is just to remember one word: "kan.”  As the most enduring world civilization, over 5000 years old, China has a major -international cultural presence, in literature and cuisine, in music and film, dance and art, religion and philosophy, drawing on its tremendous heritage.  Knowing Chinese is a great opportunity to learn another Asian languages, culture, literature and history. Taking Chinese can actually improve your mental power by learning how to arrange your thoughts into an alternative pattern or organization.

Why Study Chinese?

The rise of China presents new economic, political and social realities that demand greater U.S. engagement at every level. As the foundation of that engagement, we urgently need to raise the number of Americans who can demonstrate a functional proficiency in Chinese.

Chinese is the #1 spoken language in the world!

An official language of the United Nations, Chinese is the most widely spoken first language in the world. China is the most populous nation in the world, with 1.28 billion people. About one fifth of the global population is Chinese. There are more people speaking Chinese than English. In addition to the People's Republic of China and Taiwan, Mandarin Chinese is also widely spoken in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, The Philippines, and Mongolia.

Chinese is important for your career!

The demand for business people who know Chinese (Mandarin) is skyrocketing.

The facts that:

· China has the 2nd largest economy in the world.

· China is one of America's largest trading partners. China’s tremendous economic growth creates new opportunities and challenges for U.S. businesses.  Knowing Chinese may give you an edge when competing for an important position in all areas!

Cited from http://www.unm.edu/~fll/2008AraChnPrgm.pdf