With respect to the developments in today’s global economy, crossing borders and being a player in international markets is now essential for business companies looking to stay above the competition and flourish. Apart from learning the modus operandi of different markets, it’s crucial for businesses and employees to fully grasp languages popular in the international markets they wish to participate in.
English remains the dominant lingua franca globally, but the globalisation of local markets has led to the emergence and growing popularity of other languages on the world stage. Second only to the United States, the Chinese economy has witnessed a significant boom since its entrance into international finance and is now a major player in the world economy. From pharmaceuticals to technology, engineering to IT, and automobiles to consumer goods, the Chinese economy has laid its roots across the board. Having the capacity to communicate in Chinese with the key role-players will catapult you to a leadership position in any business field.
The largest lingual group
With China accounting for a fifth of the global population, Chinese is the world’s most spoken language. An estimated 1.2 billion people identify Chinese as their first language. As China is rivaling western economic powers as the main trading partner for many Asian countries, Mandarin is seeing increasing use in commercial circles. This has seen many signing up to learn Mandarin in Singapore. Mandarin will allow you to speak comfortably to your Chinese business counterparts. This helps to foster better bilateral business ties.
Employment opportunities
In recent years, China has extended its economic interests past its geographical boundaries, and in a globe characterised by economic crises, it seems China is flourishing while others are floundering. Moreover, China is now a major trading partner of Africa and this has seen many Chinese projects pop up in Africa. Fluent Chinese offers considerable advantages when working and talking to the ever-increasing number of Chinese nationals traveling and moving overseas. Many Chinese firms and their soon-to-be prominent brands will need to employ many foreign citizens to staff their offices abroad.
Proficiency Mandarin will make you a more attractive employment option. The borders between existing and new economies are increasingly blurred, and economies are more and more entwined and reliant on each other.
Target market
China boasts of a large and growing consumer market. For consumer-oriented businesses, China presents an ideal market. With such a large market in China, finding the ideal target market for your products and services marks the beginning of localising your product or service for the Chinese market as well as presenting new business opportunities. When planning your economic campaigns in China, knowledge of Chinese culture and language will be a huge advantage. The inept use of Chinese language will result in the disastrous failure of your marketing ads and products, and your reputation will suffer. A direct translation of a marketing campaign message from your native language to Chinese isn’t easy. Pepsi, for example, when it began to market to Chinese consumers with a newly translated catchphrase ‘Pepsi brings you back to life’, they soon realised that their translated slogan had a totally different and disastrous meaning. Being fluent in Mandarin is crucial to professional success in China.
Due to the globalisation of local markets and economies, knowing how to speak Chinese will afford you many business advantages, enhanced by China’s booming economy. Learning Mandarin in Singapore by attending a language class will undoubtedly help you realise your professional objectives.