Probably one of the most fascinating languages in the world - definitely the hardest. With 1 billion speakers, Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken language in the world. For many people, this is also the language of the future, with China becoming more powerful every year and a huge economy that buys and sells all over the world. There are several languages spoken in China, but Mandarin is by far the dominant language in China and is also spoken in Taiwan and by part of the Chinese community of Singapore.

Chic factor: With its reputation for intractable difficulty, speaking and writing Chinese fluently is seen as the gold standard of intellectual achievement. If you are fluent in Chinese and have no Chinese background, nobody should ever have a doubt about your intelligence.

Countries: Mandarin is spoken in Mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore. The other leading Chinese language, Cantonese, is spoken in Hong-Kong, South-East China and Singapore.

Speakers: About 800 mio speak it as their mother tongue, plus 200 mio as a second language. Keep in mind that all the Chinese languages in China are written more or less the same and that if you can read one, you can read all.
Travel: Traveling with Chinese is limited to China, but what a country it is ! Sea, desert, mountains, forests, huge cities, just name it and you'll find a passionating Chinese version.

Variations: Thanks to the homogeneous Chinese school system, there are limited regional variations in Mandarin Chinese. However , other languages are also spoken in China such as Cantonese or Wu.

Culture: Multi millenarian culture, with literature a thousand years old, castles, palaces, poetry, calligraphy, excellent cuisine.