<p>… o_O wokay… pretty tense in here… but ANYWAYS. regarding the question, just pitching even if it’s a bit late in because I vaguely heard some stuff :)</p>
<p>I believe out of the two, Chinese would be the right choice for you. Honestly, I think you want to familiarize with a language that, not only is beneficial for work, but also for your life in general, and knowing a native language can really take communication in your personal life and with your cultural heritage to another level. Also, I don’t know what field you’re planning to go into, but if it’s business like I’m getting the feel from comments made by others, Chinese would play a more pivotal role. Although I’m not sure that it’ll leave much of an impact on your business transactions and meetings and etc, having the impression that you are a person with Chinese roots capable of being more Chinese and not just an foreigner trying to make money will build a better image for you to the people you interact with. </p>
<p>Also, Spanish is one of those languages that is predominantly beneficial in social services or service factor (medical, hotels, civil law) where knowing spanish will greatly help your communication. However, when working with international professionals, the international language is still greatly English, and knowing another language that is dominant in a global area of commerce will help you better.</p>
<p>Chinese is more difficult but will help you more in the long run.
Spanish is good as many people speak it in the united states and everywhere pretty mch south of us. But China is a rising global power so Chinese will help you get a job in a growing market.</p>
<p>Chinese hands down. China is a rising global power yes, but also look at the other chinese speaking places/asian places with high chinese populations i.e. taiwan, hong kong, macau, singapore, malaysia.</p>
<p>You can also understand a chunk of what Japanese words mean as well, they might have different pronunciations in Japanese but the kanji words (chinese loadwords) have the EXACT same meaning most of the time</p>
<p>Obviously knowing both languages would help, but it would also be very difficult. For your situation, I think it would be more beneficial to study Chinese. Maybe you can choose which you feel would get you better grades and take that one in college. Then maybe you can study the other one outside on your own for your own benefit.</p>
<p>Chinese all the way (in particular Mandarin)–don’t study Cantonese it is really useless --it will go the way of the dinosaur as mainland China has taken over HK and Mandarin is the standard language of the nation… As for Mandarin/Chinese it is not that difficult of a language to learn. Over 1 billion people speak it. Way more useful than Spanish!</p>
<p>With all due respect, Mandarin is a very difficult language to learn. Achieving advanced proficiency levels in speaking, reading and writing is not an easy thing to do. It takes a very dedicated student to take on such a language.</p>
<p>Regarding technical-work (not business)… as a US born Chinese working at a high-tech (semiconductor company), here’s my 2 cents:</p>
<p>(1) For home Taiwan/China tech-companies (I’m not talking about US companies with China/Taiwan offices), most technical work is done in Chinese. If your Mandarin is <em>EXCELLENT</em> (as in you can read a Chinese/Taiwanese/HK newspaper at the same speed as a US high school student can read a US newspaper… and pinyin doesn’t count), you may be comfortable with this…but you won’t earn nearly as much working as an engineer over there as you would in the US.</p>
<p>(2) You could get a job at a US office of one of a large multinational company (Intel, Lenovo, etc.) Depending on the exact job responsibilities, you may end up doing a lot of travel to your country of choice. The difference between this job (where you work mostly in the US, and do some occasional travel) and a job where you are totally based in Asia, is that you would collect a US salary. (Most companies pay the salary of the local geographical region.) I don’t know of too many purely technical positions that fit this description (program manager?), so you’d have to to do some digging. </p>
<p>As for language proficiency, if you want to work abroad, you need to understand that you will be competing against locals (who grew up with the language) and 1st-gen immigrants (who know the language almost as well.)</p>
<p>There is a world of difference between immigrant (1st-gen) kids and ABCs in terms of Chinese proficiency. The ones who come past middle-school (6th-7th grade), and who retain their literacy, can read/write/speak well enough to be considered a native speaker. (Though their English won’t be as proficient or accent-free as someone who grew up in the US.)</p>
<p>In contrast, among ABCs (american born Chinese) born to Chinese parents who speak Chinese to them, typically they can carry simple casual conversations. Some of them sound like native speakers (according to my immigrant friends), but as soon as they’re asked a technical subject or debate topic, they’re toast. The ones who seek additional study (studying abroad, take advanced Chinese in college), can become technically proficient, but most choose not to.</p>
Normally, I’d say don’t waste your time w mandarin if you’re just starting out in college. But since u already have a heritage foundation in it and an ear for it, then if u are genuinely interested in it, then go for mandarin. If u prefer vacationing in spanish speaking counties, then go for spanish.
Just don’t pick a language for business prospects. Having done work in china: multinational business is conducted in english.
Do keep in mind that if u are ethnically chinese, then in china you will be held to a higher standard than a non-asian person. I’ve observed that white colleagues will get gushed over with obsequious appreciation if they can muster 2 barely comprehensible words in mandarin. You, OTOH, will be privately derided if you are not fluent.
Chinese is more in demand nowadays. Though particularly challenging Chinese is one language people wanting to have international experience should not miss out.
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Way more useful than Spanish!</p>