5 ms·

You'd better start learning Chinese then!

Cretin2 8y ago
Which 'Chinese'?
adventured 8y ago
There are more English speakers globally than there are Mandarin speakers. The number of people that can comprehend some reasonable amount of English is even higher. The Mandarin number is going to contract as China's population declines, the English speaking population will continue to expand perpetually. By comparison, half of the EU can speak English, and that figure is climbing. Less than 1% of the EU can speak Mandarin. The same premise holds for Africa and Latin America. In Latin America, Mandarin is such a rarely known language it's difficult to even measure its use against Spanish, Portuguese and English. Few people in the rest of the world are attempting to learn Mandarin, because it's a very difficult language to learn and it has a limited cultural projection. The use case to learn Mandarin is primarily restricted to a subset of a subset of business. More people speak English in Asia outside of China, than speak Mandarin.
mitchty 8y ago
I'd highly encourage you to listen to this lexicon valley podcast, I am a bit skeptical on mandarin or cantonese or one of the other dialects of chinese taking over globally. http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2018/05/john_mcwhorter_on_the_prospect_of_a_universal_language.html http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2018/0...
paidleaf 8y ago
There is no such thing as a "chinese" language. Your statement is akin to saying "You'd better start learning european then". China is a region with a far greater linguistic diversity than europe.
- laretluval 8y ago
  Plain "Chinese" commonly refers to Mandarin in English usage. The CCP is trying to wipe out the other dialects as soon as possible, anyway.
  - paidleaf 8y ago
    > Plain "Chinese" commonly refers to Mandarin in English usage. What we call "chinese language" has historically been cantonese as that's what we are mostly familiar with ( mostly via immigration ). Most of us don't even know there are different chinese languages. I know I didn't until someone corrected me on social media.
fallingfrog 8y ago
I was more trying to make the op think about the fact that their language might not be the universal one, and to think about how it might feel to be forced to learn some other culture's language, than to make a statement about mandarin Chinese specifically. It just seemed like a tone deaf statement to casually suggest that perhaps everyone else in the world could be forced to abandon their mother tongue.

Which 'Chinese'?

There are more English speakers globally than there are Mandarin speakers. The number of people that can comprehend some reasonable amount of English is even higher. The Mandarin number is going to contract as China's population declines, the English speaking population will continue to expand perpetually. By comparison, half of the EU can speak English, and that figure is climbing. Less than 1% of the EU can speak Mandarin. The same premise holds for Africa and Latin America. In Latin America, Mandarin is such a rarely known language it's difficult to even measure its use against Spanish, Portuguese and English. Few people in the rest of the world are attempting to learn Mandarin, because it's a very difficult language to learn and it has a limited cultural projection. The use case to learn Mandarin is primarily restricted to a subset of a subset of business. More people speak English in Asia outside of China, than speak Mandarin.

mitchty 8y ago

I'd highly encourage you to listen to this lexicon valley podcast, I am a bit skeptical on mandarin or cantonese or one of the other dialects of chinese taking over globally. http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2018/05/john_mcwhorter_on_the_prospect_of_a_universal_language.html http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2018/0...

paidleaf 8y ago

There is no such thing as a "chinese" language. Your statement is akin to saying "You'd better start learning european then". China is a region with a far greater linguistic diversity than europe.

laretluval 8y ago
Plain "Chinese" commonly refers to Mandarin in English usage. The CCP is trying to wipe out the other dialects as soon as possible, anyway.
- paidleaf 8y ago
  > Plain "Chinese" commonly refers to Mandarin in English usage. What we call "chinese language" has historically been cantonese as that's what we are mostly familiar with ( mostly via immigration ). Most of us don't even know there are different chinese languages. I know I didn't until someone corrected me on social media.

fallingfrog 8y ago

I was more trying to make the op think about the fact that their language might not be the universal one, and to think about how it might feel to be forced to learn some other culture's language, than to make a statement about mandarin Chinese specifically. It just seemed like a tone deaf statement to casually suggest that perhaps everyone else in the world could be forced to abandon their mother tongue.