i don't think the world will ever learn mandarin en masse if that entails learning thousands of characters. that said, if the chinese embrace an alphabet (at l

i don't think the world will ever learn mandarin en masse if that entails learning thousands of characters. that said, if the chinese embrace an alphabet (at least for communication with foreigners), pinyin/bopomofo could become the standard for an "international mandarin." or more likely, the chinese will just learn english since it already has international traction.