Learning a foreign language expands our knowledge. It increases our understanding of cross cultural communication and diversifies our society.
We obtain a certain insight into the ways of life of other nations. It broadens our awareness and encourages tolerance for people of different cultures and religions. We find that although other people may think, speak and act in ways different from ours, their ways are not necessarily less desirable.
According to the 1997 Encarta Encyclopedia, "As the dominant language of East Asia, Chinese has greatly influenced the writing systems and vocabularies of neighboring languages....It has been estimated that until the 18th century more than half of the world's printed books were Chinese."
Spoken Chinese comprises of many dialects. Cantonese is one of the most prevalent dialects. It is very popular in Hong Kong, most of Guangdong, as well as in other parts of the world. Chinese is one of the modern languages which will have great importance in the coming century. The social and political influences of the countries that speak this language are more and more evident as we see increasing numbers of Chinese-speaking people in Canada and all over the world. Today, I urge you to start learning Chinese. It is both challenging and fun!!!
Educational Objectives
