Chinese or Japanese

[GMTplus7]

Because China is most likely to become the most powerful economy in the future, over time, Chinese will become the accepted business language.

Didn’t they say the same about japanese in the 80’s?

China is indeed going to become the largest economy in the world, but only bcs it has the most people. Per capita, china is poor. And China is still lacking in soft influence. Multinational corporations might want to assemble their gadgets in china or try to sell KFC chicken to a billion eaters, but even expats don’t like living there.

Chinese will never supplant english as THE accepted business language, bcs:

1. english is already entrenched as the int’l business language
2. chinese is awkward to read/write
3. it’s a tonal language

Even presently, if you know English, learning Chinese is more valuable than learning any other language. Generally, IMO from Chinese culture, Chinese people appreciate your effort to speak Chinese, even if you do not speak it well (as opposed to France, from my experience only).

Chinese people appreciate non-asian races learning a few token phrases in chinese, no matter how unintelligibly mangled-- it’s like watching a trained seal ride a unicycle. Ive seen the chinese gush appreciation in business meetings in china. But they do not extend that same patience to speakers w asian faces.