In the world, more and more people are studying Chinese as a second language and the situation is developing increasingly. Chinese is too hard to learn, right? There is no doubt that written Chinese is difficult to learn. However, the spoken language is a different kettle of fish. Many people in the world ask their children to learn how to speak Chinese at first. A famous quote (语录) says, “When you have children, you should be sure to teach them Chinese. Chinese is going to be the most important language in their lifetime.

Why do more and more people want to learn Chinese? The first reason is that Chinese is the language spoken by the largest number of people in the world. Learn to speak Chinese and you can speak with millions of people around the world. More reasons:

•       Culture — With thousands of years of history, Chinese culture is very fascinating. Whether your interests are in history, art, music, or food, a knowledge of Chinese will improve your understanding of Chinese culture.

•       Travel — China offers exciting travel opportunities. Getting around is much easier if you can speak Chinese.

•       Business — China is becoming more and more powerful. Business people who speak Chinese have a huge advantage in developing the Chinese market. It is much easier to develop all-important relationships if you can speak Chinese.

“How are you?” is a nice question. It’s a friendly way to greet other people. But when a person says “How are you?”, they might expect to hear “Fine” in response, even if the other person isn’t actually fine. The reason is that “How are you?” isn’t really a question and “fine” isn’t really an answer. They are common（常见的）ways of saying “Hello” and “Hi”.

Sometimes people don’t say exactly（确切的）what they mean. For example, when someone asks, “Do you agree?” the other person might be thinking, “No, I don’t agree. I think you are wrong.” This doesn’t sound very polite, so they might say, “I’m not so sure.” It’s a nicer way to say that you don’t agree with someone.

It’s interesting when people want to finish talking. For example, when someone wants to finish talking with another person on the phone, they may say “I have to go now.” Sometimes they might give an excuse（借口）, such as “Someone is at the door” or “I left something on the stove”. The excuse might be real, or it might not. It’s a polite way to stop a conversation and it doesn’t hurt others’ feelings. People don’t always say exactly what they are thinking. That’s just part of the game of language.

How different can cultures be?

People from different cultures can eat different kinds of foods and live in different kinds of houses. They probably speak different languages and have different beliefs and customs. But guess what! They can also be similar in ways you might not expect. The similarities between cultures connect people and help them communicate.

We sometimes call these ways of communication universal (全世界的) languages. Strictly speaking, they’re not languages but ways of sharing thoughts and ideas. And same of them allow people of different backgrounds to communicate and share emotions and feelings.

For example, some people believe music is a universal language. There must be some scientific support for this idea, too. Experts have learned that across cultures, people can notice three common emotions (情绪) in music, happiness, sadness and fear.

Music may even be able to bridge the differences not only between people of different cultures but also between people and other living things. Music has proved to have a good influence on all kinds of animals.

Some people believe dance is also a universal language. Along with music, dancing seems to be a common interest shared by people all over the world. Do you think you could see a dance from another culture and make some reasonable guesses about the ideas and emotions behind it? Of course, you could!

Another universal language that you might not think of is math! If you think about it now, it just makes sense. The value of pi (圆周率) is around 3. 14159, no matter where you are on the Earth!