Chinese Voices Could Possibly Dominate Business

China Rising is the name of a documentary released within the last couple of years, indicating that China, in both trade and voice, is becoming a super power on the world stage, a power that will have the attention of the entire world thrust upon them as they host the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

China, while an economic power, is also a linguistic power with millions of people around the world learning how to speak Mandarin and Cantonese in order to keep up with the fast paced growth being experienced overseas and in International trade.

Mandarin is quickly becoming the language of business and any businessperson who learns how to speak it is at an advantage to be certain.

As the role of the Chinese language, spoken by billions, becomes more prominent cross the ocean and more Chinese citizens immigrate to North America, the need for Chinese language skills and Chinese voice over will increase significantly.

This week, I conversed with two Chinese voice talents based in the Peoples Republic of China, Kuang Haze and Zhenyu Tan, about what makes their language unique and the role that the Chinese language, particularly Mandarin, plays in the voice over marketplace.

When asked what makes the Chinese language different from other languages, both Kuang and Zhenyu were quick to note that the Chinese language, an Oriental language, is unique because of its structure, characters and relatively high learning curve for non-speakers to learn.

Zhenyu added that along with the development of China, Chinese has become more and more popular around the world. He speculated that Chinese could even be the second most popular language other than English. The Chinese population has spread throughout the world that also facilitates the spread and application of the language in other countries.

Zhenyu raises a pertinent point. With more and more Chinese people moving to North America, the need to provide new citizens of Chinese heritage with communications in their own language is very important.