Yep - it's not only a very useful skill to be able to speak Chinese in China, it's virtually a MUST. If you can get by with just English, good luck to you; however, in Kunming, virtually NO ONE speaks English. The only English words an average Kunminger knows are hello and bye bye. That's it.

From day one in Kunming I've assumed that no one in China speaks English and I would rather struggle or call my translator than try to speak English in China, because with a few exceptions, it's useless trying. John Xie and some other Chinese posters here may speak good English, but they are the exceptions - very, very few Chinese I have met in Kunming speak any English and that includes the staff working at places like the French Cafe - their English is minimalist at best.

@Johnxie, I think you failed to mention the real reason why it's sometimes hard to get understood in China. Chinese has very, very few words. Only 20,000 words. No wonder there is so much misunderstanding, because everything sounds the same. Chinese is a contextual language - you can't just say one word and be understood - you need to use an entire sentence. Take the word "shi4" for example - it can mean about 100 or more different things - that's shi with a falling tone (4th) tone. If you just said "shi4" do you mean to "run an errand", or do you mean "to be"? In English, we have something like 1.2 million words, so if we just say one word or concept like "to be", then everyone will know exactly what we're talking about. That's why you have subtitles on almost every program on Chinese TV - without them, people wouldn't know what's going on - it's the characters that show you the meaning of the word.

English is widely spoken because of post war american cultural hegemony. A successful country which exports cultural products such as films will also export its language. Now who's to say that Chinese is not to become the next "international language" (a most silly expression anyway)
China is developing faster than any country in history, it is only a matter of time before it will start exporting cultural stuff instead of industrial products. So yeah if you are talking about the future, I would say Chinese is a good investment. Anyway, so many companies are dealing with China now that skills in Chinese can't be useless on a professional point of view.

Personally I don't think in terms of investment though. Rather in terms of brain investment, the more languages you speak, the more things you can learn, you teach your brain how to expand to grasp ideas that don't exist in your own language (and do it fast as is required to learn the most difficult written language in the world aka Chinese). I learned 3 languages before Chinese, and I learn so much faster than my classmate who's never studied languages before.

I think that this "brain stretching" helps you grasping many other concepts. It's pure learning.

And to people who live in China even for a few years or less, I think it's a matter of respect to learn the language of the country you live in. There is nothing I despise more than people who walk into a Chinese shop or bar and start talking english (or any other foreign language) at the staff without even asking them if they speak it first, as if everyone should speak english...

I'm not saying that everybody should speak Chinese fluently, but everybody should at least try to learn some, be it only to apologize for your bad Chinese. It's only good manners.

As for saying that everybody will speak English in the future (I even heard some people saying that Chinese people will give up characters soon...) these people are fools, or worse. It's a very ethnocentric idea.

Saying that people will end up giving up their particular language for English is not far from saying that "some civilizations are worth more than others" (famous saying of one of the minister in our former xenophobic French government)
I learned English to be able to communicate with people in many countries, true enough many people speak it, and it's a practical thing to learn it. But to start expecting people to speak English in non English speaking countries is a dangerous mistake

Hell, many people in my country expect people abroad to speak French... don't you think it's as ridiculous to expect them to speak English?
A bit of perspective doesn't hurt.

sorry for the rash answer, I heard so many expats who live the perfect neocolonial life in China say that "it's not worth it to learn Chinese" that I can't help getting a bit carried away....

That is strange. I thought English was dominant because it is the Lingua Franca of business, and this began with the British Empire. At the height of the British Empire it controlled 1/3 of the worlds landmass. At one time America was also a colony.

Well as your here, can't really see any reason why not to.

I don't mean you need to go to school or anything (although you can if you want).
But it makes it a little easier to get things done and understand your environment if you understand the lingo.
You may find it easier to learn Kunmingese, only 3 tones.

Learning a new language is useful and it is always good to continue learning new things. This depends on what price a person is willing to pay to learn chinese. Not only the cost ($) of paying the teacher but also the time involved in learning, especially if you are older.

I think most people would agree that learning any other language is much easier then learning chinese.

I have lived in China for more than 11 years and have travelled extensively and interact with locals on a daily basis. My chinese is limited to what I learn from day to day and I have never formally learned in a classroom setting. I have no interest in learning to read chinese as this is too time consuming and I will have to give up the things (Teaching + Travel) I enjoy doing now to learn to read.

It all depends on the needs or choice of each individual. Many people here have already stated that they live comfortably without learning chinese.

It would be a lot more reasonable if the Chinese learned English to accommodate Westerners in China.

that's not a fair statement.

most chinese people HAVE to study english in school. this has nothing to do with accomodating westerners in china. it has probably more to do with Rockefeller coming to visit Deng and making some sort of secret deal way back when we were all in diapers.

and those that don't speak english, just utter a few blurbs.

being nice to the local folks is more important than language anyway.

Yankee, this is the worst post I've read on this forum.
Why don't you come back in U.S.???

classical example of looser laowai in China.

@Yankee, I'm going to be kind and assume that you are putting us on! If you're serious, how about explaining what you mean by reasonable?
@HFCampo: Actually, I don't think learning to speak Chinese is EXTREMELY difficult, though of course it's more difficult for those with totally unrelated mother tongues. I'm not saying it's easy either - the tones seem to be more difficult for some people than others, for one thing - but certainly the grammatical hoops that one has to jump through for Indo-European languages, Semitic languages and many others are much more difficult to negotiate than those for Chinese grammar. I also think it's easier to learn to speak Chinese if one also learns to read, at least a little - although the written language is indeed perhaps the most difficult - still, some knowledge of it is helpful, and I mean for speaking, not just for reading.

Anyway, the choice should not be that of either setting out for complete Mastery or Nothing - I know 2-3 foreigners in Kunming who seem to have looked at the language in this manner years ago and chosen Nothing, and they are still pretty much in the same bubble of virtual isolation from their surroundings as they were 10 years ago - can't say 4 syllables in a row - though they've long ago lost most of their awareness of the great vastness of life outside the bubble from their consciousness and assumed that their short-hand generalizations of life outside are more or less accurate.