ive been travelling to China quite frequently over the last 6 years (about 100 days per year- footwear industry), but sadly havent had the opportunity to lear to much Chinese (Mandarin). I can count to twenty, know some colors, usual “hello, goodbye, thank you, tec.” a few technical words and lots of drinking games, but not much more.
when i first started travelling with my boss who had been going to china for more than 20 years I was suprised that hi didnt know much beyond “hello/thank you”. but now i see how much more difficult it is to learn of you are dealing in business with people that can speak english very well and need to efficiently communicate (ie. can spend 10 minutes flipping through a dictionary or trying to learn in the midset of getting stuff done).
still, if you have the opportunity, i would say it could be a big plus.
I used to work with a tech guy from india who could speak pretty fluenty about all things technical, daily use (food, directions, etc.) and get by in all ways. I dunno how he did it (spending more than 200 days in China/year probably helped a lot), but more than anything saw the respect he commanded when working with suppliers.
As for young children learning multiple languages, I think its been shown in studies that the young mind can much easier process the requirements to learn different sounds and grammar structures much easier than adults. If there’s anyway I could teach my kid Mandarin (when i have a kid) i would.
Interesting sidenote is the number of languages most europeans speak compared to north americans. Its not unsual for many europeans to know fluently at least 3-4 languages (ie. German, english, french) with a working knowledge of maybe 1-2 more (ie. spanish, scandinavian languages, etc.).
In business it never hurts to be able to speak the language of your business partner/suppllier even just to make them feel more at ease.
Good point though by TimF about the thinking difference in cultures west vs. east. I would also agree that this is as important or more important than langauge esp. as more asian cultures are now learning english, but very little in the way of western culture/business practices.
R