Answer:
Cons - Academic, emotional and social issues abound for children who are poor readers. Children who are behind their peers in reading struggle with low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy. Low achievement in reading is also the common denominator in school discipline, attendance and dropout problems, and juvenile crime.
Explanation:
Pros- You would be able to communicate with people who speak, read and write in Mandarin. Whether you learn simplified or traditional characters depends on who you want to communicate with and where you want to travel to. Simplified, China. Traditional, Taiwan. Learning traditional characters also will allow you to read papers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and some Kanji used in Japanese, and maybe some historical documents in various Asian countries with some history of Chinese language influence. It will also allow you to enjoy entertainment in Mandarin and read Chinese subtitles. If you learn both Simplified and Traditional it gives you more range of usage.
You would gain a better understanding of Chinese culture. There is pretty much no way you could learn the language and not gain this.
You can communicate if you travel to countries that speak Mandarin or use Chinese characters, for business or leisure.
You could order your food in Chinese in restaurants where they speak Mandarin (or at least understand Mandarin, if perhaps they speak Cantonese or Hakka or Taiwanese).
