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Is Chinese The New Language Of The Internet?

13 points by WildUtah 16y ago

vorg 16y ago
Would you rather have 1000 websites in a certain language, virtually all of them unblocked, or 3000 sites in another certain language, 80% of them unblocked?
InclinedPlane 16y ago
A rather misleading infographic, seemingly intentionally so. Yes, internet usage is growing amongst people who live in countries where English is not the primary language. However, that's the extent of the analysis. In actuality despite a lot of growth in non-English web content English is still the de facto language of online communication.
Anenome 16y ago
Numbers alone does not create a "dominant language on the internet". Chinese is far more difficult to learn than English. English is international, that's not gonna change any time soon.
kulpreet 16y ago
I've taken Mandarin in school for three years and I can tell you that regardless of Chinese being the 'new language of the internet', Chinese websites are like entering a whole new world. Everything from the design to ads are completely different from what you'd expect on an English site.
- Groxx 16y ago
  Japanese pages are similarly very different from English. I suspect many languages have different "internets" though; there's a rather strong language barrier that prevents a lot of their users from experiencing other language's styles.
  - chunkbot 16y ago
    "Similarly different?"
    - Groxx 16y ago
      5-2 is the same difference as 9-6, so yeah.
- PureSin 16y ago
  that's actually a good point. I often visit Chinese websites and I notice that many either copies the design of whatever service they were inspired by (i.e Youku v.s Youtube) or stick to a very simple tons of links with white background style. Although Chinese characters are significantly more complex when compared to the 26 letters in English, thus web designers had to take different considerations for readability.
kiba 16y ago
So we have this great cultural information separated merely by the great barrier wall of language.
uast23 16y ago
Chinese can be the language of Internet within China, not outside and I am not saying it with any agony; it is the truth. Once and for all English has been established as the universal language to communicate. India as an example, has majority of its websites targeted towards English speaking audience (which is a huge lot in India) and its not because no body wants to do a regional website, its because the regional websites have very less number of readers. So, learning English is almost a pre-requisite to using Internet here. And there is no hard feeling about having "English" as a pre-requisite because that helps you in reaching to a wider audience. Niche cannot be denied and we will always have regionally targeted products but that won't replace English at a global level. Even China is training a huge number of people with English.
- cdavid 16y ago
  I am not sure why you are saying that english has been established once and for all. French was that language two centuries and half ago because France was very powerful, and latin was before because the church was the most powerful entity (in Europe that is). It is mostly a question of which culture is the dominant one - right now, it is the western one, in particular american one. I don't know how nor when, but I am sure it will change at some point. The cost of changing language is not that high. The only thing that could change this would be near-perfect automated translation. I would not bet on China not getting the most important culture in the world before that :)
  - uast23 16y ago
    I said that because of increasing level of acceptance among people. And I beg to differ on "The cost of changing language is not that high" point of yours. I know that English was not always the first language to communicate for everyone but look at 'today" where billions of people are reading and writing English everyday on web at a faster pace than any other language. All the dominant languages earlier did not have this privilege. And the bigger point is that no body minds it. People are more concerned about the their economic status. And this might be very personal but somehow I don't relate to languages emotionally. I am very much an Indian at heart even though I use English for most of my everyday communication needs :) Regarding the cost for language change, it will take lot of economic turmoil to turn it totally upside down.
g0atbutt 16y ago
Seeing how this was written in English, I'm going to say "no"…
binbasti 16y ago
I'm starting to think that when an article's title is phrased as a polar question, you can be almost sure the rational answer is a simple "no" (in spite of what the content may suggest).
jerf 16y ago
What is this "language of the internet" of which you speak? Some sort of artificial human distinction laid down upon an incredibly complex landscape to make you feel like you understand what's going on? I do not think there is any such beast. "The Internet" is ultimately still just the accumulation of many people speaking together, and languages will be what they are. There won't be a "lingua fraca" of the Internet because there doesn't need to be one.
- bad_user 16y ago
  Every international website / service starts with English by default, then gets extended to other languages. But localization doesn't go very well, with the example I'm thinking about being Wikipedia, where the English version is still the place to go when searching for information.
  - WildUtah 16y ago
    I find better information in Spanish about Spanish-speaking places and creative works and also about indigenous American cultures. Similarly with Japanese. But most of Wikipedia is best in English, sure. That might be just because English is the most widely spoken language in the world. Other languages could match English if they had as many speakers. There isn't any special value inherent to the way Wikipedia works in English or a bias in the code toward English articles.
    - bad_user 16y ago
      Yes, but that's what a lingua franca means: that secondary language you have to know if you want to read stuff that hasn't been translated in your language yet or speak with people that aren't speaking your language.
bad_user 16y ago
What we see here is that more and more uneducated people gain Internet access, so naturally the Internet is getting extended with localized content. On the other hand in countries where English-learning is mandatory in school (like most of Europe) people (especially teenagers) are using and reading English websites without problems. English is already the default for the European Union and comes first (on the Internet) before Spanish (second most spoken language in the world, after Chinese), German or French. One problem with Chinese that I can see is that it's a really hard to learn language. I could learn English and Spanish without even trying, with my native language being one of the Romance languages. I also don't think the sheer number of Internet users counts so much. Buying power counts for a lot more and while China is on the rise its citizens are not the consumers you want (at least not yet).
- sorbus 16y ago
  Did you really just say that not being able to speak English means that an individual is uneducated? I'm having trouble understanding how your first sentence could mean anything else.
  - bad_user 16y ago
    No, I'm saying that an individual is uneducated if it hasn't been exposed to a second language. Second languages are learned in school, starting from the second grade, and tend to be languages that are spoken internationally. English and French are the preferred languages, and both are an easy transition from the Latin languages; for that reason alone I have a hard time picturing Chinese taking over.
- jimmyjim 16y ago
  > [...] Spanish (second most spoken language in the world, after Chinese), German or French. Spanish isn't the second most spoken language in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_numb...
  - mbreese 16y ago
yycom 16y ago
That's one stupid infographic

13 points by WildUtah 16y ago

vorg 16y ago

Would you rather have 1000 websites in a certain language, virtually all of them unblocked, or 3000 sites in another certain language, 80% of them unblocked?

InclinedPlane 16y ago

A rather misleading infographic, seemingly intentionally so. Yes, internet usage is growing amongst people who live in countries where English is not the primary language. However, that's the extent of the analysis. In actuality despite a lot of growth in non-English web content English is still the de facto language of online communication.

Anenome 16y ago

Numbers alone does not create a "dominant language on the internet". Chinese is far more difficult to learn than English. English is international, that's not gonna change any time soon.

kulpreet 16y ago

I've taken Mandarin in school for three years and I can tell you that regardless of Chinese being the 'new language of the internet', Chinese websites are like entering a whole new world. Everything from the design to ads are completely different from what you'd expect on an English site.

Groxx 16y ago
Japanese pages are similarly very different from English. I suspect many languages have different "internets" though; there's a rather strong language barrier that prevents a lot of their users from experiencing other language's styles.
- chunkbot 16y ago
  "Similarly different?"
  - Groxx 16y ago
    5-2 is the same difference as 9-6, so yeah.
PureSin 16y ago
that's actually a good point. I often visit Chinese websites and I notice that many either copies the design of whatever service they were inspired by (i.e Youku v.s Youtube) or stick to a very simple tons of links with white background style. Although Chinese characters are significantly more complex when compared to the 26 letters in English, thus web designers had to take different considerations for readability.

kiba 16y ago

So we have this great cultural information separated merely by the great barrier wall of language.

uast23 16y ago

Chinese can be the language of Internet within China, not outside and I am not saying it with any agony; it is the truth. Once and for all English has been established as the universal language to communicate. India as an example, has majority of its websites targeted towards English speaking audience (which is a huge lot in India) and its not because no body wants to do a regional website, its because the regional websites have very less number of readers. So, learning English is almost a pre-requisite to using Internet here. And there is no hard feeling about having "English" as a pre-requisite because that helps you in reaching to a wider audience. Niche cannot be denied and we will always have regionally targeted products but that won't replace English at a global level. Even China is training a huge number of people with English.

cdavid 16y ago
I am not sure why you are saying that english has been established once and for all. French was that language two centuries and half ago because France was very powerful, and latin was before because the church was the most powerful entity (in Europe that is). It is mostly a question of which culture is the dominant one - right now, it is the western one, in particular american one. I don't know how nor when, but I am sure it will change at some point. The cost of changing language is not that high. The only thing that could change this would be near-perfect automated translation. I would not bet on China not getting the most important culture in the world before that :)
- uast23 16y ago
  I said that because of increasing level of acceptance among people. And I beg to differ on "The cost of changing language is not that high" point of yours. I know that English was not always the first language to communicate for everyone but look at 'today" where billions of people are reading and writing English everyday on web at a faster pace than any other language. All the dominant languages earlier did not have this privilege. And the bigger point is that no body minds it. People are more concerned about the their economic status. And this might be very personal but somehow I don't relate to languages emotionally. I am very much an Indian at heart even though I use English for most of my everyday communication needs :) Regarding the cost for language change, it will take lot of economic turmoil to turn it totally upside down.

g0atbutt 16y ago

Seeing how this was written in English, I'm going to say "no"…

binbasti 16y ago

I'm starting to think that when an article's title is phrased as a polar question, you can be almost sure the rational answer is a simple "no" (in spite of what the content may suggest).

jerf 16y ago

What is this "language of the internet" of which you speak? Some sort of artificial human distinction laid down upon an incredibly complex landscape to make you feel like you understand what's going on? I do not think there is any such beast. "The Internet" is ultimately still just the accumulation of many people speaking together, and languages will be what they are. There won't be a "lingua fraca" of the Internet because there doesn't need to be one.

bad_user 16y ago
Every international website / service starts with English by default, then gets extended to other languages. But localization doesn't go very well, with the example I'm thinking about being Wikipedia, where the English version is still the place to go when searching for information.
- WildUtah 16y ago
  I find better information in Spanish about Spanish-speaking places and creative works and also about indigenous American cultures. Similarly with Japanese. But most of Wikipedia is best in English, sure. That might be just because English is the most widely spoken language in the world. Other languages could match English if they had as many speakers. There isn't any special value inherent to the way Wikipedia works in English or a bias in the code toward English articles.
  - bad_user 16y ago
    Yes, but that's what a lingua franca means: that secondary language you have to know if you want to read stuff that hasn't been translated in your language yet or speak with people that aren't speaking your language.

bad_user 16y ago

What we see here is that more and more uneducated people gain Internet access, so naturally the Internet is getting extended with localized content. On the other hand in countries where English-learning is mandatory in school (like most of Europe) people (especially teenagers) are using and reading English websites without problems. English is already the default for the European Union and comes first (on the Internet) before Spanish (second most spoken language in the world, after Chinese), German or French. One problem with Chinese that I can see is that it's a really hard to learn language. I could learn English and Spanish without even trying, with my native language being one of the Romance languages. I also don't think the sheer number of Internet users counts so much. Buying power counts for a lot more and while China is on the rise its citizens are not the consumers you want (at least not yet).

sorbus 16y ago
Did you really just say that not being able to speak English means that an individual is uneducated? I'm having trouble understanding how your first sentence could mean anything else.
- bad_user 16y ago
  No, I'm saying that an individual is uneducated if it hasn't been exposed to a second language. Second languages are learned in school, starting from the second grade, and tend to be languages that are spoken internationally. English and French are the preferred languages, and both are an easy transition from the Latin languages; for that reason alone I have a hard time picturing Chinese taking over.
jimmyjim 16y ago
> [...] Spanish (second most spoken language in the world, after Chinese), German or French. Spanish isn't the second most spoken language in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_numb...
- mbreese 16y ago

yycom 16y ago

That's one stupid infographic