Do you know what Google is in Chinese? Google is 谷歌 (gǔ gē.) Literally, it means “Valley Song.”

Where did the company come up with that name for it’s Chinese brand? It was probably a group of linguists, market experts, and focus groups that ultimately decided the brand name. It certainly wasn’t something a random employee scribbled down on a bar napkin.

The short of it is that Chinese is a coveted skill and should be added to your repertoire. With China's rising economic power and rich heritage and culture, Mandarin Chinese will be increasingly useful in the coming years.

Learning a second language, any language, will always be a valuable investment of time and effort. Language-learning automatically stimulates the mind, helps you gain multi-tasking skills, and can even boost your intelligence. Besides having intellectual benefits, learning a new language can also be a gateway into a new culture, and allow for a better understanding of certain peoples and their customs.

No, we’re not suggesting that Fourth of July was a Chinese idea. While the Chinese invented many things that you probably weren’t aware about, Independence Day has always been a true American holiday.

The Internet world is buzzing about Mark Zuckerberg’s latest visit to Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he conducted a Q and A session almost entirely in Mandarin. People were stunned to learn that the co-creator and CEO of the social media juggernaut, Facebook, is rather fluent in Mandarin as well.