<p>While I agree that the Chinese languages (and especially Mandarin) are extremely valuable, I'd like to add a note of caution to the last post. I'm not in business and I don't speak Mandarin, but I've looked into going that route and spoken to a few people who have, and I have some thoughts.</p>
<p>There are a lot of people out there who are learning Mandarin because they think doing so is a silver bullet for success in business. Don't join them just because it's the hot new trend. When this many aspiring businessmen are doing something, the way to come out on top is to (a) do it really, really well or (b) do something else entirely.</p>
<p>If you don't really relish a language as hard as Mandarin, you're well on your way to becoming a walking phrase book. Going along with what sakky said, you want businesses-level networking Mandarin--something approaching fluency, not the kind of thing that you can scrape by with in daily life. There are a lot of Americans speaking bad Mandarin out there. Becoming one of them--especially when there are plenty of other Americans who speak better Mandarin, and a decent number of Chinese who speak better English--isn't worth the trouble.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you love the language and achieve real functionality in it, you'll blow the hordes of "ni hao" and "xie xie" English-speakers out of the water. You'll also be well-positioned to enter a niche market like Cantonese, Shanghainese, or one of the other Chinese languages. And finally, when the Chinese economy has its landing (as all expanding economies do), you'll have a language that you actually enjoy while you wait for the recovery. (Your job won't be the first on the chopping block, either.)</p>
<p>If Mandarin isn't that kind of language for you, I wouldn't sweat it. Find a language that you really love, that you can get really good at, and odds are someone somewhere needs your skills. You're likely more employable as the best American speaker of Kiswahili than as the worst American speaker of Mandarin. (Hey, it's not like they have a huge supply of Kiswahili-speaking Americans to choose from, anyway).</p>
<p>In short, I think it's better to distinguish yourself in whatever niche you can than to take a language just because everybody else thinks it's hot. I'm no businessman, but I've never known any who were terribly successful because they followed the crowd.</p>