urgent: why chinese

Sorry for swinging this thread suddenly on-topic, but I thought I'd add a different perspective to why chinese (and I do mean Potonghua- what the government says is Chinese, that's Chinese).

I know it's not the best reason, and I am genuinely interested in China, Chinese culture etc. I was a history student so obviously I enjoy the wealth of information here. But honestly the motivation I draw upon when it's late and I can't figure out if I'm supposed to use tai or ba as the measure word for a laptop, or just give up and call it "ge," is the fact that so few of my kind do make the effort to learn other languages and cultures.
I hope I don't open a can of worms here, but it's pretty safe to say one cause of America's constanst global conflicts is ignorance and racism. And I figure when the time comes it'll help to have as many people familiar with the culture and able to communicate with the people. I really enjoy the company of Chinese people, and it bothers the hell out of me that a lot of my friends back home wouldn't give em the time of day, just cause they'd have to say it differently.
For me, learning Chinese is like a daily clearing of misconceptions, a constant stream of new perspectives that appear offensive to outsiders but are actually quite charming.  And maybe if enough people can make that argument effectively back home, it might just swing things away from a fight and toward a conversation. I mean, maybe.

I hope I don't open a can of worms here, but it's pretty safe to say one cause of America's constanst global conflicts is ignorance and racism.

China to an extent has a similar problem, but it isn't a cause for global conflict. I had never really witnessed and certainly had not been a victim of racism until I arrived in China. Some of the racist things I have heard in China were/are shocking and things that I will never forget.

A Chinese friend of mine was accused of being Japanese and was kicked out of a store.

I was told that I was not getting the deposit back on my flat because I was a WaiGuo. That's the jist of it. I'll spare you the details.

The phone call I got telling me that the school had not recieved a photo of me with my CV and wanted to check that I was indeed a blue eyed-blond hair-white person. "That's good because we don't want any black people working at our school".

An ABC friend of mine was accused of providing a fake American passport to my school when interviewed. She was also accused of lying to them when saying she couldn't understand/speak Chinese.

And finally, the fact that most Chinese people think that the only English speaking countries in the world are: UK, Canada, USA and Australia. Some acknowledge New Zealand.

I understand that this is a lack of awareness on their behalf and that China is only slowly opening up, but I still found all these stories shocking.

Don't get me wrong I love China, despite all this.

this thing is slowly getting 

Desole.

This is merely an extension of why I am learning Chinese, but the more I get into it, the more fascinating it becomes.  I think I'm lucky in that I have a good teacher who can explain so many of the reasons behind the particular characters and sayings, as well as another good mate who really enjoys discussing both English and Chinese etymology.  But it is a fascinating language.

True. I shouldn't single out the States. I just feel like those of us who know better have something of a responsibility to learn about other cultures in the hopes of fighting back a little. I find even with a little Chinese I can handle sticky situations, particularly ones dealing with cultural misunderstanding, better and to a more productive end. That's why I started to learn Chinese.