whenever i would feel a little bit of procrastination or doubt or just not like doing it i would look back at this list and it would just help me to stay committed to the process if you're trying to figure out whether you should learn mandarin or not or if you're just trying to get motivated to keep learning mandarin then this is the video for you in today's video i'm going to be talking about five reasons to learn mandarin chinese and why i think there's no better time than now to really commit to the process and go for it if you're new here my name is izzy i'm a final year medical student at cambridge university also learning mandarin part-time and i wanted to make this video because i know a lot of people struggle with motivation to learn mandarin or they're not sure whether mandarin is the right language for them so i think when learning a language or committing to any kind of project where it requires some kind of long-term focus and it's a bit more of a marathon rather than a sprint i think that making sure that you really know your reasons why you're doing it is so important because then anytime that you feel a bit of doubt or procrastination or low motivation you can just refer back to your reasons why that can give you that springboard and that activation energy to actually get moving so for me when i started learning mandarin just over a year ago now i wrote down a list of my reasons to learn mandarin and it would just help me to stay committed to the process so without further ado let's go the first reason why you should learn mandarin is that mandarin is one of the biggest languages in the world mandarin chinese has the most native speakers of any language in the entire world and this number is only growing over 1 billion people in the world speak chinese which is around 14 of the global population or one in seven people approximately by learning mandarin you'll be able to communicate with all of these people in their native language i know you might be thinking that i can communicate with them in chinese but lots of people speak english these days or there's loads of translator apps you can just use those to talk to them and yes that's true maybe you can communicate with them using those methods but i think there is something different about being able to speak to someone in their own language to quote nelson mandela if you talk to a man in a language he understands that goes to his head if you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart and i think there's so much truth in this because people are instantly warmer and more friendly when you've made that extra effort to connect and understand their own language and their own culture mandarin is widely spoken across all of china taiwan singapore and lots of diaspora all over the world whenever you're traveling or visiting any of these places then you will be able to connect with people in their native language and i think that's incredible the second reason to learn mandarin is that you can really get a deeper understanding of the really rich culture and history chinese culture including the art the calligraphy the carving the music the food the tv shows and everything else in between in order to fully understand it you need to know the language because wherever you go the language and the culture of a place are so inextricably linked together so to access and understand all of this incredible culture really knowing the language will help that so much and will really go well with that the third reason to learn mandarin is that it opens so many doors for potential travel for business and just general opportunities in the future china is one of the biggest economies in the world and is an economic superpower and is also growing so fast and with all of that growth in five or ten years time there will be careers and opportunities and ways of living don't exist right now and that we can hardly imagine in today's world by starting or continuing to learn mandarin right now you'll develop key language skills that can open doors for you down the line whether it's in your hobbies and the movies and tv shows that you like to watch or even if it's where you want to live or where you want to travel all of these opportunities are enhanced and boosted by knowing mandarin and being able to connect on that level the fourth reason to learn mandarin is that learning a challenging language like mandarin trains your brain and keeps it active learning a language like mandarin is a challenge to our minds and in order to be able to learn to speak the language our brains literally have to grow and reform themselves this is down to a property of the brain known as neuroplasticity which can be defined as the nervous system's ability to grow and evolve and change in response to new stimuli and life experiences and so by giving your brain this stimulus to learn chinese and learn mandarin it is literally changing its structure and forming new neural connections and this has been shown by some studies to actually boost your cognitive function boost your memory make you more creative and can also potentially protect against the onset of alzheimer's disease so as the popular quote goes if you don't use it you lose it by training and using your mind to learn a new language like mandarin you will keep it more young and agile and stay mentally fit the fifth reason to learn mandarin is that learning a language can help make you a better communicator and it can also give you a deeper understanding of the way that language itself works something that i didn't really realize when i only spoke english is that the language that we speak completely shapes our perspective of the world and the way that we interpret it and the way that we think through learning mandarin and realizing that there are ways of saying things or words that don't have any translation in english made me realize that actually wow there is this whole other way of thinking and this whole other framework for how you talk about the world and how you think about the world and also by understanding these differences and the struggles of learning a language i found that i can empathize more with other language learners or people who are learning for example my own native language english a common phenomenon noted in people who are bilingual or polyglots who speak multiple languages is that often when speaking different languages they have a slightly different personality or slightly different vibe perhaps because you're using different parts of your brain to speak each language and i found this to be true for me i've been told at least by people who have spoken to me in both english and in mandarin that when i speak mandarin i'm a bit more cheeky and sweet a bit more girly than when i speak english and so understanding all of these differences between different languages and how that influences your worldview and the way that you interact with people i think makes you a better communicator overall and especially when the language is so different from your native language such as english and mandarin in very different languages learning mandarin is just really fun and to see your progress in this new skill over time is so satisfying and being able to actually use that skill and use the things you're learning to talk to new people and seeing that progress when you chat to language buddies or friends in the new language it's just so fun so those are my top five reasons to learn mandarin and i honestly think that there's no better time than now to actually start learning this language or continue learning this language and i sometimes get comments saying that they think they've missed the boat with learning chinese or maybe they're too old to learn chinese to quote a traditional chinese proverb the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago the second best time is now so good luck with the language learning i hope it goes really well if you enjoyed this video i think you might like this video over here where i talk a little bit more about how i learn mandarin and give you some tips around that also let me know if there are any other video ideas you'd like me to create thank you so much for watching take care of yourself and i will see you in the next video bye [Music] you