I want to learn Chinese! Just like Jin (the Emcee) told me to!

In America now there is a new hip hop artist named Jin (the Emcee) who had a hit entitled "learn Chinese". It is a very catchy song and had a great Music video on MTV. At first I thought it was funny. Why would a person want to learn chinese if they already spoke english. Doesn't everyone in the world speak english? But read in Time magazine and Newsweek about how China is the new superpower and Chinese may be the new lingua facta (international common language). Chinese is already the most spoken lanague in the world. I have also heard about the rising need for Chinese/english  speakers in international business. I have heard from many friends that If a person speaks chinese and engilsh fluently that will become rich and never have a problem finding a job. Plus many say that the world will have to learn chinese anyways as this Sleeping Giant awakes and shakes the world with her strength and influence. Plus I want to watch the wealth of chinese cinema! I HATE overdubs! Anyways... in short I am taking Jin's (the Emcee's) advice and learning chinese. ANY ADVICE?

Jin the Emcee actually speaks Cantonese, which is a dialect of Chinese, but with the descriptions of your endeavors, sleeping giant, most spoken language etc... you MUST be referring to Mandarin Chinese, I am also looking for advice to study this commanding and beautiful language...

Oh, so what is mandarin? All I know is that there are mandarin oranges :P Where is cantonese and mandarin spoken? Are there othere languages or dialects that are called "chinese"? I am a little confused now. Please help. WHAT IS CHINESE? What should I learn?

Mandarin is the official language of China, you could say its the REAL Chinese, it is spoken by over four fifths of the country and is understood by even more.  Cantonese is mainly spoken in Hong Kong and few surrounding areas... Regarding what you wrote earlier and how Chinese may be the new internationally spoken language in the near future, business, most spoken language in the world etc... I am certain you are referring to Mandarin Chinese, you want to learn Mandarin Chinese.

Hello 'first time to China', I am happy to hear that some other westerners such as your self are coming to realize the importance and practicality of learning Chinese. I hope you will start your language study soon! The sooner the better! This is because as of not there are relatively few foreigners that are fluent in both Chinese and English, but this number is increasing daily. I suggest that you start studying as soon as possible, this way you can ride this wave at its peak. There are already some westerners who are fluent in Chinese that have become very famous in china, the most famous is Mark Roswell, otherwise known as Da Shan (Big mountain). Some things that you need to know about Chinese though is that it is spoken differently in different places throughout China. Each city has its own dialect and accent. This can make it difficult to learn to speak if you constantly move around in china, unless you are very fluent. However, many people if they see that you are a foreigner that is trying to speak with them, they will be inclined to try to use the most standard pronunciation, which is based on the Beijing (the capital of China) pronunciation. My advice is to live in a single place for a long time and learn how to communicate in that area. Also, try to pick up some of the local dialect! It can be very fun and the locals get a kick out of it! Also, it can help you to get better deals at places! Also, if you have a great local pronunciation in the local dialect you can get amazing deals that only locals can get if you negotiate on the phone 如果你不学习中文你是愚笨的 ;)

hi "first time to china", I am glad that u r interested in learning chinese. I am a chinese . I can give u some advice for learning Mandarin or other especial dialect . And the best is that I can teach u chinese through the internet . if u really want to study chinese, u can contact me by MSN or by e-mail. And I will give u a questionnaire which will help us to planning study schedule. Remember my msn is : sunshine20021030@hotmail.com

to first time to china   I'm Chinese and living in China now. I can help you if you want. My email is [email=fxq101@hotmail.com]fxq101@hotmail.com[/email] .