Even if you don't learn Chinese, I've been consciously adding http://v2ex.com to my doomscrolling regimen and running it through Google translate. It's a popular Chinese webforum, and while I wouldn't say it's exactly Chinese HN, it's
a close enough approximation. It's interesting to see I have some of the same concerns and questions as someone halfway around the world in a totally different language and culture.
Here's an example from the front page, English title is: As a backend programmer writing front-end with the help of cursor, what is the most suitable front-end framework/solution
The comments mentioned all the usual suspects, Angular, Vute, React, next, etc.
Learning Chinese is not easy. That being said, one does not need to know Chinese in order to work with peers or business partners from China. For working in China, while knowing the local language is certainly an advantage, it is not a requirement, especially in science and technology. I have met a few scientists and exchange scholars in China. They basically only know how to say "Good morning," "Thank you," or "Sorry, I don't know how to say it in Chinese." One can expect co-workers to speak English. Buses and subways in big cities announce stops in English. There is English on road signs. Restaurant menus may not have English, but they likely have photos, or perhaps you can just surprise yourself anyway.
There is a new K visa that is granted to anyone holds a STEM degree from a well-established college anywhere in the world. People can come to China first and then look for a job. This K visa is less than a month old, so it is unclear how it works. Getting a job is a different story. Past data shows that non-state-owned small businesses created more than 90% of new jobs. Perhaps because they have not fully recovered, the job market is tight.
It's really hard to get anywhere with. I was in Hong Kong a while and gave up. I tried Cantonese and Mandarin. That's another thing with 'Chinese' - there are actually about 200 versions spoken although the written symbols are the same.
At least with Japanese if you read a phrase from the guide book they understand but with Chinese if you don't get the intonation right they can't figure what you are on about.
They are mostly happy to do business in English though - it's not a bad place to cultivate business ties.
No. I can speak Chinese, I’m an engineer, I’ve had collegues in both China and Taiwan that I’ve worked with. It’s never been useful to me as an engineer (socially is another matter). I guess if I could speak at a really high level it could have some use. But getting there is incredibly hard unless you live in a Chinese speaking country.
Decades ago I had Chinese coworkers and decided to ask them to teach me a word or two a day. I immediately discovered I could not tell the difference between the five tonal sounds of "ma" and so never got very far at all.
I suspect it's one of those things you kind of have to learn as a child due to brain plasticity. As a native English speaker I've been trying to learn some Serbo-Croatian — which is linguistically much closer to English than any Chinese dialect — and even though my hearing is normal I can't perceive the difference between the "č" and "ć" sounds. They both seem like the English "ch" to me.
Why shouldn't you? You learn 3 new characters a day with no effort whatsoever via SRS and pass the HSK1 in 2 months. If you like it, you keep on studying and improving, if you don't like it, at least you will be able to greet the taxi driver when you go there (but won't understand their reply).
