cdn_china pretty much summed it up. English is not my first language, not even my second language actually. I work somewhat long hours and to this day could not really bothered with learning a really difficult language with a very questionable ROI.

I'm not an exec or a renowned industry expert by a fair margin, but still get a lot of work done that Chinese managers struggle with, and have assistants, translators and interpreters support me where needed. To acquire good enough Chinese to replace them in any of these tasks would require years of full-time study, not something I or anyone else with a career could possibly afford. I fully appreciate the difficulty of good interpretation and translation, and would never task a foreigner with 'ok' Chinese to do that, nor would I hire a recent Chinese grad who doesn't know our company to do that work. So again, terrible ROI for expats.

I sometimes read and contribute on a Chinese language learning forum and there the verdict is clear: it does not pay financially to learn Chinese, full stop.

I still hope to improve my Chinese, as it would certainly benefit my social interaction with the locals and make my life in general a bit easier, but if I knew I'm leaving in a few month I wouldn't bother at all.

Sounds like she had a fairly typical experience here in China (from her account of the attack on ESPN):

"[the attacker] had one hand on his hip, the other waving the knife in the air. I asked my teammates later to translate what he was saying.They told me he was yelling, "I'm going to kill you!" ... I remember looking to the front of the bus because it seemed too much time had passed -- four or five minutes. Where was everybody? The bus driver was still in his seat, and a man who seemed to be a security guard was standing on the stairs. Both appeared to be frozen, maybe unsure how to help."

"Stop people from acting like total dicks trying to get on before people have gotten off"? Not likely. Common sense is not a strong point in this country. They don't grasp the concept of doing things orderly and efficiently.

I can't imagine how scared she must have been when the doors closed on her. That has always scared me with people being pushed back out before the doors close.

I used to take line 10 to line 5 but quit after it started getting too crowded as early as 4:30 in the afternoon.

PS an earlier version of this story mistakenly identified the women's team as the Beijing Ducks. The team goes by the moniker of the Beijing Great Wall.

Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with taking the time and making the effort to learn Chinese, but one's Return on Investment (ROI) is questionable, especially for professionals and executives. I seriously doubt there is much value for the majority of professional expats. This "China is hot" situation is a remake of the Japan Inc. of the 1980s when Westerners were scrambling to learn Japanese. Time has shown that those folks' ROI has been much, much less than hoped. I'd argue the same will happen with the Chinese language, as there is quite limited value with the Chinese language outside of China.

I suggest that for the vast majority of expat professionals, basic day to day Chinese is more than enough. When requiring language abilities beyond a basic level, one only needs to use the assistance of a competent Chinese translator. As an analogy, it is MUCH easier (and wiser) to have a nice meal at a good restaurant, prepared by a competent chef, than to try and learn how to make such fine cooking yourself. At home, day to day, bacon & eggs, soup and sandwiches suffice.

Again, kudos to those who are attemtping to master the Chinese language. But how many native English speakers have you met who struggle to communicate properly in even basic English? We all know that literacy in the West is a serious problem. And if they can't communicate properly in English, how well do you think they communicate in Chinese? I suspect that most Westerners who try to show off their Chinese language abilities are speaking Chinese gibberish.

The language question I would have for most Americans, aside from English, is how well do they speak Spanish? Or for Canadians, how well do they speak French? And so on. The "Speak Chinese damn it!" attitude is remarkably similar to the "Speak English!" redneck attitude in the West. These types of China Daily articles, and secondary hyperbole by other publications, is nothing more than redneck-edness with Chinese characteristics. As noted by an earlier commenter, I most probably wouldn't want to communicate with individuals of that ilk.

My vote is - basic Chinese that allows one to survive is more than enough.

Mtnerror, I don't see how the foreign population at large and the foreign professional population differs significantly, except for students. What other population segments are there? Retirees?

As for Cdn_China and the other "I don't need to speak Chinese" guy, if you're working at the highest level of whatever your respective industries are, that's great, but otherwise, I really don't see how not speaking Chinese is an advantage. Daily life here is so much easier with some knowledge. Also, I have to wonder -- if you don't speak the language, aren't there better places to do what you do than Beijing?