Why Study Chinese? Many good arguments can be made for learning Chinese. But in our experience, those who choose to study do so because of a sense of curiosity about other people and other languages. Moreover, it is a kind of curiosity that the study of Western languages just can't satisfy. Their reasons vary in the details: some learners focus on the cultural aspects of Chinese society, while others are more interested in economic or political issues. Some may find the act of studying Chinese characters fascinating in itself (like solving an indecipherable puzzle) or enjoy a sense of accomplishment at learning a language that the vast majority of Westerners don't know. For Western-born Chinese, it can be a sense of heritage that spurs them on.
 The arguments offered below are good reasons to study Chinese and show that it is an important world language; that it is a language that can be a foundation for a successful career; that it is an asthetically-tuned and culturally rich language. But in the end, few people take the time or make the effort to learn Chinese unless they have or develop that strong sense of curiosity.
So, if you're feeling curious, you may find some justification to study Chinese in the facts below:
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Language
Grammar is easier than you may think:
There is no conjugation of verbs
There are no gender rules
Characters, too:
Complex characters are built up of less complex ones. So once you get a solid foundation of the simpler characters, even the most complex ones are a piece of cake.
It's memorization, but not all memorization. As with any language, with experience, you can often guess at the meaning or pronunciation of a character by simply looking at it in context.
Many characters are actually pictures of what they represent. That makes much of the necessary memorization much easier.
OK, so the tones are hard, but there is good news:
It actually becomes more natural with practice
There are hundreds of dialects in China, and even when speaking the same one, people from different regions can pronounce the same words very differently
People will understand you even if you're not perfect!
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Culture
Modern Standard Chinese is spoken by more people than any other language.
The contributions by the Chinese community in such areas as cuisine, music, art and festivals give us a great opportunity to widen our experience and aesthetic appreciation.
China boasts 4000 years of continuous civilization, with contributions in philosophy, the arts, science and technology that were the equals of anything from the West at the time.
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Economy
With the largest population and the fastest growing economy, China has among the greatest potential as a market for U.S. goods.
The present economic growth rate of China is highest in the world (10%-14%).
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Government
Chinese (Mandarin) is one of the U.N. official languages (along with English, French, Spanish, and German)
The People's Republic of China is widely expected to become a major geopolitical force in the new Millennium.
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More detailed information about the governments and economies of the following areas can be found in the links below, which point to listings in the CIA World Factbook.
PR China
Taiwan
Singapore
Hong Kong
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