I have been told that I will be offered the opportunity to move to Hong Kong, Singapore, or Tokyo within one or two years at my firm. I have nearly two and a half months off this summer before starting and am considering doing a Mandarin immersion program. Does anyone know of any good programs? I want something rather intensive so that when I get back to the states I can hit the ground running with a good tutor. Yes, I know most people speak Cantonese in Hong Kong, but I am not exactly convinced of the value of learning that language.
Thanks!
Take the CFA instead, everyone speaks English now so another language does you nothing
Mandarin is very important for Hong Kong. Everyone in hk might speak english, but many of your deals will be from China. Plus you may get data written in Chinese, will be interacting with Chinese clients, etc. Some workers there do not know Mandarin, but it is definitely a big consideration when hiring internationals.
It seems pretty worthless to me if one wishes to stay in IBD, S&T, or PE?
Goldson imo you cant be more wrong that knowing another language does nothing for you (assuming you're not looking to only work in the US for your entire life). Your CFA means nothing in China obviously if you can't speak the language, but I'm of Chinese descent so I guess my opinion is somewhat biased. Not taking anything away from the CFA though... currently pursuing that myself.
Cantonese is not a language and Mandarin is not a language either; they are dialects.
Chinese is the language.
semantics. doesn't take away from the fact that it's important
So let's not even get into the differences between -Traditional vs. Simplified -Dozens of different dialects in Chinese -Word usage differences between PRC, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, overseas Chinese
jk jk
Mandarin / Chinese is important.
Is probably at Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) in Beijing. They've got a 6hr/day intensive course, and the teachers there are good. But just be wary of hanging out with other foreigners all day.....
columbia university also holds a summer program at peking university... if youre really looking for immersion, you can choose the homestay option, but if you have no working knowledge of chinese, that might be rough at first... also, there are several really good (from what i hear) programs in taipei, i think the best one is at ICLU
You have to take into account that all forms of Chinese are extremely hard to learn. I have started to learn mandarin on and off for a while now, but it is hard going, perhaps I don't have enough time to dedicate to it. I have learned a few other languages and with harder ones you need to spend time in the country if you want to see an improvement. If you do go to a Chinese speaking country, try to go to a provincial city, as hanging out with foreigners and going to western places seriously impedes your learning, trust me I made that mistake. Try searching on the net for unis, you can just contact them directly and negotiate price and everything, they are used to doing that type of stuff. Finally, don't listen to any idiots who say learning languages is pointless. Particularly as an English speaker you always get a lot of respect from people for having taken the time to learn their language.
The fact that everyone speaks mandarin doesn't mean it's not valuable. EVERYONE SPEAKS ENGLISH... would you consider it unnecessary to know English??? Hey I know!! Maybe we should all learn Ancient Greek instead because really, no one speaks it!
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