Lately, I’ve been reading the What Foreign Language Should I take?, thread. I noted how outside of the three choices mentioned in it that, besides Spanish, Chinese would be right up there with Farsi, in terms of a beneficial language to know.
After traveling to Taiwan and finding out (much to my distress) that all of my Cantonese dim sum restaurant Chinese was utterly useless, I am now curious about which dialect of Chinese is best to learn. I’d love to master all of the written characters but that is unlikely. Yet, I’d really like to ask simple questions when traveling and still remain convinced that it is one of the most important languages to learn in this modern world.
China Guy, or any of our other Sino savvy members, please let me know about your opinions. I feel that Cantonese would permit me to address the maximum of Chinese people, yet I find that Mandarin is the language of choice for government, management and those that I love in Taiwan. What’s a global citizen to do?