personally I started learning Chinese for absolutely no reason! lol I finished uni in England and decided to take a year break. I decided to come to China as I had a friend from Shanghai in uni in London. Enrolled in SISU and learnt Chinese for 10months. After that I decided I would stay in China. Now I have been here for 4years and translate! Haha, I have no hidden objectives.

There are lots of answers for your question,which start right from building a persons career to looking for a GF. You just answered a part of a question.Below i will answer rest of the missed answers for your question. 1> If a foreigner is working in China,learning chinese language for him/her will boost career and bring him/her close to his/her collegues.Its a tool for winning peoples mind and getting efficient work done. 2> Language is a skill which remain through out a person's life.Its a treasure. 3> Tomorrow if a person go back to his/her country,this person will be taking chinese language which can be a valuable asset to share & teach own country mates. 4> Its a pleasure to learn one ancient language like chinese,which is followed in countries like Singapore , Malaysia,Taiwan & HK.And let me tell you there are some philipinos coming from Chinese descent who speak chinese.

the same as why more and more people want to learn English and Japanese maybe they would to fine a foreigner girl/boy friend? of course no!!!!

we want to learn chinese cuz chines people dont understand english so its very hard for us to stay in china with out chinese not for making gf

i just like to learn chinese because it's cute and i can use it if i work in china