Learning Mandarin - The Times Newspaper

Letter 11 February 2007: -

As an English chap who studied Mandarin for two years at Nanyang University, Singapore, back in the 1970's, I believe that to speak Mandarin is not as difficult as we tend to imagine. Reading and writing, are, of course, much harder.
I once told a Chinese friend, that there was no point in me learning Mandarin, as so many Chinese people spoke such excellent English.
He replied, "It will help you to be accepted and Chinese businessmen will trust you more than trusting other Chinese. They know that you can't be as smart!"