Sounds like a horrible idea. You don't need to be in the #1 fastest growing country to have a good life and Asian work culture seems miserable.
Well that's what the parent seems to want, since they're the one asking, not me.
You don't need to speak Chinese to live in big cities.
You need to speak the language…
You can totally get by on survival phrases. Many of my fellow foreign coworkers in Beijing could barely speak a few phrases and they did fine. Today it’s even easier than it was 20 years ago.
Exactly.
Yes I know, that's not what I said though, with "here" being the US and "there" being China. Just taking language classes in the US for Chinese aren't likely to be helpful.