I value and respect all languages but I seriously doubt that Chinese will overtake English. When it comes to practicality and ease of learning , English makes a lot more sense than Chinese. The world community would find it very hard to learn Chinese which is a very difficult language - its orthography and pronounciation are almost impossible to master . English was chosen as a lingua franca because of its appeal and practicality and will remain atop as the chosen language.
In my country, Philippines gives a value of English as a competitive language and there were foreigners who study here to improve their English skills. In addition, some foreigners are willing to learn Tagalog (the official language of the Philippines) to embrace the culture of Filipinos. I don't think Mandarin will rule as business language. Still English is the best !!!
@NLS87 With this budget??? Lol. Sorry I used a translator and thats what it gave me. Lol. You are lucky to know portuguese. "Eu quero aprender o português porque eu já sei que os espanhóis e ambas as línguas são muito similares."
no french, this documentary is about US, French is not really a priority there. Of course by 2050 French language will become one of the most important language thanks to the demographic growth of Africa. Anyways, it's understandable that a northern american wouldn't need French, their priorities being Spanish or Chinese.
Mandarin needs an alphabet. Not a syllabary or a pictographic writing system - and alphabet. That's one of the reasons why English is successful - the writing system is relatively easy to learn. If China wants to spread their language and culture, they're going to need an alphabet.
@werothegreat Due to the nature of the language of Chinese it is impossible to simply have an alphabet. There are too many homonyms. China already has pinyin, but the syllable "Yi" for example, even with the tone marked, still has around 10 different meanings, and that's just the commonly used ones.
@DeathKnight725 Well, if one can tell from context what "Yi" means when spoken, then they should be able to tell from context what it means when written.
I have studied foreign languages in order to be able to move there if I have to leave the USA. I don't see myself moving to China though. It is too overpopulated for my liking. Mandarin Chinese is only spoken as a national language in China/Taiwan.
English, Spanish, Portugese, German is spoken as a national language in more than one country. There is Chinatown in San Francisco, but they speak mostly Cantonese.
As a Taiwanese American, I value both Chinese and English. I encourage Chinese Americans to learn Chinese, but I will never give up promoting English in foreign countries. Many Taiwanese Americans volunteer to go to Taiwan and China, teach children in poor areas how to speak English. That's the respect that we have for the US, who has generously helped Taiwan and China become economic superpowers.
Most Taiwanese and Chinese VALUE English. We respect the American culture.
I don't see that happening. Even Asians are using English to converse with each other. Eg Korean speaks English to Chinese. etc. Also, there's NOT enough Chinese words to translate the English language. Chinese have only 15,000 words to describe the world. English has 2+ million words. ;) Chinese is a dead language, I'm afraid
China is character based, unless you are in an art lesson its becoming more and more useless in the digital world. Asian languages are proving too hard for other countries, so it is more easy for a chinese person to speak english to a japanese person.countries are picking up english as a second language by the day.
Mandarin is by population, the most spoken language because of china. English is the most widely spoken language due to the British Empire's dominance over the world. if you went all over the Americas, more people would speak English than Mandarin, it is mainly localized in China and those surrounding areas. Plus, most computer programing today is done in English.
@logoRH There is no language called Chinese. Mandarin is spoken by about 50% of the population the other 50% can't speak Mandarin at all. Even 50% who speak Mandarin many speak it as a second language not native language. Even those who speak it as a native language, speak different varieties of Mandarin which are mutually incomprehensible to each other like German/English. Beijing Mandarin is the one dialect chosen to be Chinese. 200-300 million may speak it. Nobody knows not even the Chinese.
People should try to learn as many languages as they can but we have to be realistic. Some students are not as gifted with languages as others. It would be impossible to have the whole world speak the same language. Even in countries with mandatory school attendance some are illiterate in their mother tongue.
Also, only a few countries have the language nationally, and they happen to be one of the most populated countries. Latin root languages are literally everywhere, english being the most used.
honeslty, symbols to represent an object as a language is a terrible idea. Digitally, it is harder to give out information, and I cannot even imagine a chinese keyboard. As well as that, chinese is prone to give out mistranslations, and can effect information that might be important. Honestly, more people are learning english than chinese, and I personally think they are going the right way. Chinese is a good language to know, but it shouldnt be an international one
@thisusernameistaken2 English is a mch more detailed language than chinese, which makes it better for global communication. I am not saying chinese is bad, but because of its faults it seems to me that it wouldn't be great. I do speak english, yes, but does that mean I don't want to learn chinese? No. And if you further read my arguement below, you can obiously see my arguements are true.
@dranomania If by 'more detailed' you mean 'English has a larger lexicon', then you are correct. But I think you'll find that English's vocabulary has only become huge in recent years while English has been 'the international language'. The same thing will happen to Chinese.
@thisusernameistaken2 Your arguments below are false. Chinese does not use 'symbols to represent and object'. It uses lopographs. Most chinese words contain two characters, and each character has two parts. One part tells you the pronunciation and the other part tells you the rough meaning. It's not less efficient than an alphabet. A chinese keyboard is a normal alphabet keyboard. They type how a word sounds phonetically and the character is displayed on the screen.
@dranomania All languages are prone to mistranslations. Have you ever read English native speakers write in Chinese? I think you'd find it's just as bad as Chinese Engrish (which, by the way, is proof that English is not perfect as an international language).
Really, if you're going to criticise Chinese for being 'imperfect', maybe you should be proposing Esperanto, because English is just as hard as Chinese.
@thisusernameistaken2 Yes they are prone to mistranslations, but mistranslations are not the only thing. Since English is one of the most detailed languages out there, that means there are more words that define larger words to make the language easier. The alphabet system is much easier too, having to remember thousands of symbols to comprehend seems a bit much than 26 letters to remember to comprehend a word. And because of the symbols, many other aspects are effected. Keyboards is just 1 ex.
Unless one is really into chinese culture or wants to be an intepreter, it's just a rediculous waste of time. The chinese are already learning english in much larger numbers.
Why should we be forced to learn Mandarin or Chinese? Are the jobs going to be relocated to China? There won't be opportunities in the USA any longer so I have to go to the god-damn East in order to have a career? Screw this.
Neither Chinese nor Japanese will ever be a dominate language because it's symbol based and very limited in what it can do... for instance you can't arrange things in alphabetical order. Just like Egyptian Hieroglyphics, symbol based language is ancient language belongs in the past, and is unsuitable for this modern world. Besides what language will an Indian and a Chinese man use to communicate with each other? How about a German speaking to a Japanese? That's right, English. ;)
@Asiats1 : I agree with you. Chinese will never become the lingua franca (language of trade). That is because chinese did not colonize the world like the British. Plus, english is already established. Still, I am quite happy that people are learning more languages than just english. IN my country, chinese is already taught in addition to their native language and english.
I simply do not see Americans trashing this language like what they did to British english. balls, coconut, f&&&. >_>
@Tentenlaw Most Chinese when learning English they prefer the American accent because it's technically more accurate. Americans pronounce the words 'r' and 'e' where as British omits these sounds. Having said that English is constantly evolving and adapting from all cultures around the world. It's very flexible. Everyday there are new words added to the English dictionary for which there is no known translation in other langauges.. that's why it's so successful because absorbs other cultures.
The thing is that 1.3 Billion Chinese are learning English.. and 1.5 Billion Indians mostly speak English. Last time I went to Beijing, half the road signs there were in English. I think 1000 years from now we'd all still be speaking English, unless an Alien invasion takes over the world lol.
dont learn european languages because europeans are speaking all good english.you can communicate with them in english.therefore,leraning their language would be a waste of time.in contrast,the chinese businessman cannot speak english well.thus ,its very important that you are able to speak their language whem you are involved in business.
@easterlinear Chinese language is too divided. There's cantonese, mandarin, Hakka, Min and hundreds more.. with Cantonese being the oldest and most difficult to learn. The present day Mandarin is a washed down version of the ancient language in China.
@Asiats1 Of course if China continues on its 1 child per couple path, AND India continues to have the same birth rate, within 20 years India will be the most populous country. Even though there are more than 20 different languages in India, if you went to school, you can speak, read, and write English very well. Chinese, like any language and especially Chinese is a VERY good language to know. 1seckelman
@1seckelman there are more than 20 different language in China too.. the most difficult and meaningful is Cantonese which has longer history than Mandarin. how many Indians can speak Chinese? how many Chinese can speak Indian?
@Asiats1 That is the whole point, English will continue to be used as the international language in business, science and technical matters. The U.S. is fast on the road to becoming a bilingual country Spanish/English, look at my videos at YouTube Search type: 1seckelman Joe
@1seckelman The US is not bilingual. Spanish is dying in the US as fast as any other language including the great German language of the 1800s. I teach in Los Angeles and 1st generation kids can understand Spanish but can't speak it fluently. Many second generation kids can't speak it at all. Listen to the Spanish radio or TV or newspaper most of it is for old Spanish speaking people.
@gewangew It is difficult to learn as a foreign language, but many characters are written so that they look like what they mean, unlike the Germanic and Romantic languages which only tell you how to pronounce the word. Also Chinese is far more aesthetically pleasing. :)
The kids will be fluent? I think that's an exaggeration, unless they go to an elementary school that continues the programm, their language is going to fall away.
Also, "English: No Longer The World Language" title is a bit ridiculous.
English will be the world language for the forseeable future, its highly unlikely that Mandarin (which I have learned for 4 years btw and love) will become a world language, not when its so concentrated in only two countries. It will never surpass English.
Interesting how we say "American culture spreads" (as if it happened accidentally) but "China is spreading its culture", implying that China is imposing this on people. Spain has their Instituto Cervantes, the UK has the British Council, and Germany has its Goethe Institute.
In fairness, shouldn't this be reworded as "See how Chinese culture is spreading and gaining influence"?
This is just another educational fad. These fads come and go. In the 1980's, there was a educational program called "The Better Baby Institute". I have lately been seeing ads on late-night television for a similar program.
More likely English will continue to absorb some Chinese aspects worldwide, similar to how English in the southern US have absorbed some Spanish, Australia some Aborigine, and similar with English in Africa and Asia. Because of this versatile quality of English the language will probably remain as the dominant language in business, science, and travel for a while to come. But learning multiple languages doesn't hurt.
I will be honest with you, China is a big market. They are trying to become the next language spoken in America. I hope it doesnt happen but at the rate at it's going, it is possible.
@FieryBalrog I think is because that newspaper is a different language.... And there is only 20,000 Chinese characters that is still know, and you don't have to learn all of them, just like English, you don't have to learn all the English words to read and write. In fact, most of the Chinese words are useless.
Chinese is the official language of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore & Macau. Their population alone is probably larger than those countries u mentioned combined.
Chinese don't have trouble with the language, it doesn't have much to do with the writing system, it's just sometimes people in HK & Taiwan can't recognise some of the new simplified characters that are used in Mainland China & Singapore. It's easy to get the hang of reading simplified characters if u already know the language.
@kirachoujin R u one of those who like to be argumentative just for the sake of it?! That wasn't even my point!
Mandarin is a spoken language. Chinese is the written language of those countries I mentioned before. The official written language isn't called Mandarin. People of those countries speak different languages & dialects, The word 'Chinese 中文' is generally used to identify the Chinese language family of all the Chinese languages spoken in China & other Chinese speaking countries.
Then you must admit that English is not a language that it is a series of dialects: English, American, Canadian, Australian and etcetera. Not doing so is annoyingly selective bias.
i am a filipino..if the chinese language is already expanding in the whole world..well sorry i don't wnna waste my time of studying chinese because in philippines we already used to speak english all the time or we used to speak our langyuage with some enlish sentences that's what we called'' taglish'' or tagalog-english
Moreover, Americans in general can't even manage basic rules of the English language such as subject/verb agreement. In addition, Chinese is a language associated with a brutal regime that has no freedom of religion and oppresses people in a cruel vicious way. Chinese will never unify humanity like English has. Chinese is a racial language associated with one group--the CHINESE--whereas English is spoken by a richly diverse group of diverse nations and many different ethnolinguistic groups.
@amerenio R u serious? Do u even know anything about the Chinese language & the British & American history?
1. Chinese is not a race, it's a nationality.
2. U think the British were so sympathetic to their colonial subjects? Some of their colonies lost their native cultures & languages bcos they were forced to speak English. (i.e. the Irish). The British were oppressive. Stirred up religious conflicts in India, many people were killed. Tricked & Forced China to buy opium & sign unfair contracts.
Americans killed off almost the entire population of Native Americans, put Africans in Slavery, Irag wars, those were pretty brutal... As one of the wealthiest countries in the world they don't even take care of their own people to give free health care.
What u on about brutal regime. Of course, these things r justifiable, right?
The West loves to associate cultures with politics & governments. It's like saying u should b blamed for what ur government's done. It's kinda ignorant.
Can Chinese be written using the Latin alphabet? 'Cause if it isn't they should introduce it like in Vietnamese and more people will probably learn it.
that will only help minimally. Each Chinese word still has one of four tones and a hard grammar because it is so different, simple but very different.
lol the last thing u can say about chinese is that its grammar is hard =P and the grammar structure in which order to put words isnt that different from english. learning chinese fluently without the writing part can be done very fast, faster than french for example.
no, that is not true at all. there is basic subject and predicate like in English. you are lying and forgetting that Chinese sentences are structured like English and or French. they are very different. just look at all the mistranslated signs in China. it's bleeding obvious. if it were easy, Chinese would learn English very easily. The reality is that Chinese have always had difficulty learning English simply because both are so very very different, in spite of some small similarities.Tsai tien
yea, they have difficulty learning english because the english grammar is far more complex to what theyre used to. english can still have a simulaur word order and still be very difficult, but for an english speaking person to learn chinese then, as long as theyre not an idiot, is pretty simple to learn especially compared to korean or japanese which will take far longer to learn. even the writing part, yes its time consuming but it is still straight forward, u only need a good memory
The grammar is not difficult. You can look at the hundreds of comments here saying that, and a friend of my mum's can speak Chinese and she said the tones are the only difficult part of it, otherwise it's just like learning any other language. And I mean if they can do tone with those symbols they could do it with a Latin alphabet. If it's because of the tradition, because people don't want it, then okay that's fine, but otherwise it would make sense.
@Freshbott2 The Vietnamese language was forced to change due to the French invasion. It in many ways unsympathetically altered their traditions.
Why do you think China should change its writing system or romanise their language just for non-East Asians countries to learn. Would European countries Easternise their languages so that Asians can easily learn them??
To learn a foreign language takes dedication and time, & u'd just have to adapt.
U probably don't mean to but it's a bit offensive.
I'm not saying invade China. You'd be insane to. And I don't see how Latinising the language would harm traditions, particularly if you allowed the Chinese to do it themselves. And it's not necessarily so they can learn European languages, namely English, which they all do anyway so it would help tonnes. I read not that long ago about people trying to introduce full capacity for Chinese and similar languages in the internet, but it would wreak havoc on DNS systems or something.
So if China is going to have a larger hold in internet services and foreign learners, it'd make a pretty good start.
Or they could simply alter the way they use their language, like the way Japanese was all complicated but then they just changed it so their system works very European like for simplicity. No loss of traditions or anything.
So a few people outside of China are learning Mandarin. Meanwhile in China, everyone learns English starting in third grade, and continuing at least until they graduate high school. And the same kind of thing is happening all over the world. English has won.
actually chinese is kinda easy. the writing makes it look hard and yes it takes time, but the language has almost no grammar at all... and lol japanese, its WAAAY harder than chinese trust me.
the grammar is simplified but still very very different from other languages. the words are pictures which takes a very long time to learn. THEN there are FOUR tones which each word may have so you have to get the tone right to convey the right meaning. sorry , but Chinese is extremely hard and is identified with one race while English is is a global language rich in vocabulary from all parts of the world and represents free, democratic countries
so all the English speaking people learn Chinese...but on the other side Chinese people are learning English...cant we make it easier and just all speak one or the other? lol
"2. At best you can type about eight words a minute using a keyboard."
Sorry I have to say something here but what the hell kind of typing system are you using? Either the system is retarded or you're just slow as hell. I can't personally type very fast coz I'm not used to but I know plenty of people who type (and txt) in Chinese if just slightly slower than in English.
Well, Language will likely depend on the changing economics of English and Chinese speaking countries. I wonder if China will stay China, especially since the eastern provinces want to separate from the west and in places like Hong Kong and Taiwan, people do not recognize themselves as Chinese.
Chinese will NEVER be the World Language for a number of reasons.
1. It is not ONE homogenous language in China,
2. At best you can type about eight words a minute using a keyboard.
3. Most Chinese speakers are at best semi-literate because of the complicated writing system.
4. Computer languages are based on English and English logic.
5. Chinese tone systems are incredibly difficult for the adult ear, without them it is impossible to understand the language unless you begin as a child.
No 1. No they are not.. Cantonese as something like 8 tones whereas Mandarin has $-5 tones. I know Cantonese speakers personally who say they cannot understand Mandarin.
All Chinese dialects are written in the same way because the language uses pictographs it doesn't matter- even Japanese shares many picotgraphs allowing a Japanese speaker to read "a little"-. the languages being unrelated.
3. Being literate does not make you Shakespeare yet being illiterate completely limits you.
No. 5- The tone system along with pronounciation is developed in the first 8 years of a child's life when its hearing is more sensitive. This is why children get accents and bi-lingual children speak "perfectly", yet adults hardly ever lose their accent. Whereas in German or English this doesn't matter so much, in tonal "pronunciant" dependent languages like Chinese it is a great obstacle.
No.1, My point is even though Chinese language has so many different languages, for them its not hard to learn Mandarin. No offense but most Cantonese cannot understand Mandarin becos. they stay in their own world, mostly illiterate.
No.2 You cannot say that Chinese typing system wouldn't improve at all.
No.3 So you shouldn't blame on the writing system but Chinese people's fate. They got addicted to Opium wars; World War II; Civil War; Communist Repression.
No.5 Have you ever learned Chinese and considered it too difficult to speak or understand? If I never learned English since childhood, I would not be able to speak or understand at all. You must understand the fact that Asians learn Asian languages better than European languages. The closer to you, the better you learn it. Btw.... are you Asian?
Unless you want to talk about sprachbunds, in which many characteristics, including tone, can vary from each language within, there's no such thing as "Asian" or "European" languages. With the exception of loaned vocabulary (a lot of it bearing little phonological similarity to the original Chinese) Japanese is as different from Chinese as English is from Turkish. The textbook example is that Japanese is agglutinative whereas Chinese is almost purely isolating.
well u cant stop people from believeing tht chinese is the most spoken language cuz if they believe in they believe in it so theirs no way tht u cant stop them
It may be the most swpoken language in the world, but it's still a shit language because you have to learn thousands of symbols to read&write it, everybody must agree that this isn't very eficient ...
I think that it is a good idea not to learn a 2nd language, but to learn several languages. In America we need to start teaching for spanish, and many eastern asia dialects.
chinese is the most spoken language not english and if you dont believe me search it up on youtube and not just tht theirs more chinese people in the whole world and theirs more people speaking chinese then english
Whats important is that English has a greater range of use. There's a country on each continent of the world where English is one of the official languages. Number isn't important. As my dad said, the Chinese could conquer any country on earth just by giving every one of their citizens a pointy stick and saying "Go get 'em"
Yes there are lots of Chinese people. but their almost all in China, whereas English is spread across Britain, Ireland, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, etc. Range is what's important.
I am not a language expert but I am arguing from my experience. My mom is a French guide and she finds it so much easier than Chinese or Japanese. You know why? Its because French is very close to English. AND my chinese teacher always tells me that I can learn Japanese very easily because I know Chinese. Why is that?
French and English are related not only by them both being Indo-European languages, but by English having a large (identifyable) borrowed latinate vocabulary.
The only 2 things Japanese and Chinese have in common are borrowed Chinese vocabulary in Japanese (much of it having undergone change to the point where a Chinese speaker couldn't recognize its meaning) and a "common" writing system that has so many differences (kana, word order, different meanings of characters) that it's use as a relational advantage is, in my opinion, slight. To give a further analogy, English and Turkish share an alphabet. Is Turkish a "European" language?
Well that means that its easier for Japanese and Korean people to learn Chinese better than any Western countries. Sorry but i don't know anything about Turkish but I do know that half of its territory is in Europe. And also alot of European languages share alphabets with English. If you tell me Zulu language share a lot of similarities with English or Chinese, I would be surprised.
My comment about Turkish was that just because to languages share an alphabet doesn't mean it's that much easier to learn. The point I was trying to make is that the differences between Chinese and Japanese signifigantly outweigh their similarities. If you want me to go in depth and list of the differences, I can. I don't know much about Korean, but I imagine the problems are similar, since Japanese and Korean ARE rather similar grammatically.
Then why is it that Chinese can learn Japanese easier than English? I don't see your point anymore because you've been using unsupportive facts on this argument.
As I said, I'm more than willing to list specific, verifiable differences between Chinese and Japanese to make my point. How is that using "unsupportive facts"? In fact, you are the one not using facts by making the claim that Japanese people learn Chinese easier than English based on nothing but anecdotal evidence.
Chinese is tonal, Japanese is not. Chinese is SVO, Japanese is SOV. Japanese is left branching whereas I believe Chinese, like most languages on the isolating side, including English, is right branching. Japanese has kana, a system most monolingual Japanese people are dependant on. Both the characters and the character combinations can differ between the two languages. Native Japanese has a vocabulary utterly alien to Chinese. These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
That there are enough differences between the two languages that the experience is not the same as an English speaker trying to learn a language like French or German
But weren't you trying to prove that Japanese can learn English better than Chinese? If not you are way off the topic. However, just to remind you again that I'm not a language expert so instead of telling scholastically, do you know any Japanese people telling you that English is eaiser for them to learn than Chinese, IF they didn't learn English since childhood.
Subestiman al Español.
jramcruz 4 days ago
@BeantownJim:
Communist, communist, communist, westerners only know communist when it comes to Chinese.
For your dumbass' info, the Taiwanese who are very anti-communist stated Mandarin as the official language
Derfuhrerscameraman 1 month ago
I value and respect all languages but I seriously doubt that Chinese will overtake English. When it comes to practicality and ease of learning , English makes a lot more sense than Chinese. The world community would find it very hard to learn Chinese which is a very difficult language - its orthography and pronounciation are almost impossible to master . English was chosen as a lingua franca because of its appeal and practicality and will remain atop as the chosen language.
mikorara 1 month ago
as long india host 1.2 billion population, and uses indian english as a lingua franca, english will survive as the world's most used language
satheeshandkumar 2 months ago
communists! dam dirty traitors!
BeantownJim 3 months ago
English and Spanish should be the main languages world wide..
MeSpanglish 3 months ago
@MeSpanglish There aren't very many huge powers that have their main language as Spanish.
Chuckacola7 2 months ago
In my country, Philippines gives a value of English as a competitive language and there were foreigners who study here to improve their English skills. In addition, some foreigners are willing to learn Tagalog (the official language of the Philippines) to embrace the culture of Filipinos. I don't think Mandarin will rule as business language. Still English is the best !!!
dlsuaron 5 months ago
I want to learn portuguese!!!
GMasis001 5 months ago
@GMasis001 força com isso ;)
NLS87 5 months ago
@NLS87 With this budget??? Lol. Sorry I used a translator and thats what it gave me. Lol. You are lucky to know portuguese. "Eu quero aprender o português porque eu já sei que os espanhóis e ambas as línguas são muito similares."
GMasis001 5 months ago
@GMasis001 lol, no, "força com isso", is a slang to encourage you ;)
NLS87 4 months ago
Comment removed
Fiasco9128 5 months ago
no french, this documentary is about US, French is not really a priority there. Of course by 2050 French language will become one of the most important language thanks to the demographic growth of Africa. Anyways, it's understandable that a northern american wouldn't need French, their priorities being Spanish or Chinese.
caracao14 5 months ago
French anyone? :D
AirTrackerGAMES 6 months ago
Welsh is on the up!
earlydoorsjones 6 months ago
Mandarin needs an alphabet. Not a syllabary or a pictographic writing system - and alphabet. That's one of the reasons why English is successful - the writing system is relatively easy to learn. If China wants to spread their language and culture, they're going to need an alphabet.
werothegreat 6 months ago
@werothegreat Due to the nature of the language of Chinese it is impossible to simply have an alphabet. There are too many homonyms. China already has pinyin, but the syllable "Yi" for example, even with the tone marked, still has around 10 different meanings, and that's just the commonly used ones.
DeathKnight725 3 months ago
@DeathKnight725 Well, if one can tell from context what "Yi" means when spoken, then they should be able to tell from context what it means when written.
werothegreat 3 months ago
I have studied foreign languages in order to be able to move there if I have to leave the USA. I don't see myself moving to China though. It is too overpopulated for my liking. Mandarin Chinese is only spoken as a national language in China/Taiwan.
English, Spanish, Portugese, German is spoken as a national language in more than one country. There is Chinatown in San Francisco, but they speak mostly Cantonese.
PIANOPHUNGUY 7 months ago
@PIANOPHUNGUY mandarin is actualy the offcial language of chinese is not a dialect
kirachoujin 4 months ago
As a Taiwanese American, I value both Chinese and English. I encourage Chinese Americans to learn Chinese, but I will never give up promoting English in foreign countries. Many Taiwanese Americans volunteer to go to Taiwan and China, teach children in poor areas how to speak English. That's the respect that we have for the US, who has generously helped Taiwan and China become economic superpowers.
Most Taiwanese and Chinese VALUE English. We respect the American culture.
ttiiyy 7 months ago 2
Funny thing. They also said Japanese would replace English as world language a few decades ago.. and before that, it was "Lern your Russian' hahahaha
Sassymui8 8 months ago
I don't see that happening. Even Asians are using English to converse with each other. Eg Korean speaks English to Chinese. etc. Also, there's NOT enough Chinese words to translate the English language. Chinese have only 15,000 words to describe the world. English has 2+ million words. ;) Chinese is a dead language, I'm afraid
Asiats1 8 months ago
damn my mum should have sent me to a half english half russian school . now i'm 18 and trying to learn it lol
Sillilesshells 9 months ago in playlist Videos about English & learning English
here in the philippines learned the most students spanish as 3td or 4td not mandarin
ExTreMHeaDShot 9 months ago
China is character based, unless you are in an art lesson its becoming more and more useless in the digital world. Asian languages are proving too hard for other countries, so it is more easy for a chinese person to speak english to a japanese person.countries are picking up english as a second language by the day.
SuperHeroMan411 11 months ago
@SuperHeroMan411 True.
ttiiyy 7 months ago
The problem with Chinese is that it's character based. Very crude lol
Asiats1 1 year ago
Mandarin is by population, the most spoken language because of china. English is the most widely spoken language due to the British Empire's dominance over the world. if you went all over the Americas, more people would speak English than Mandarin, it is mainly localized in China and those surrounding areas. Plus, most computer programing today is done in English.
DyingSID666 1 year ago
@DyingSID666 Actually the alphabet is derived from greek, and numbers are arabic. -.-
Veneratio10 10 months ago
@Veneratio10 What are you talking about? was this comment meant to be aimed at me?
DyingSID666 10 months ago
SOOOO COOOL! WISH I WAS A STUDENT AT THIS SCHOOL!
whatevs808 1 year ago
@logoRH There is no language called Chinese. Mandarin is spoken by about 50% of the population the other 50% can't speak Mandarin at all. Even 50% who speak Mandarin many speak it as a second language not native language. Even those who speak it as a native language, speak different varieties of Mandarin which are mutually incomprehensible to each other like German/English. Beijing Mandarin is the one dialect chosen to be Chinese. 200-300 million may speak it. Nobody knows not even the Chinese.
garybsg 1 year ago
Christian Broadcasting Network ?? epic fail
neagudan 1 year ago
COMMUNISM IS SPREADING.
TheInfinityMovies 1 year ago
People should try to learn as many languages as they can but we have to be realistic. Some students are not as gifted with languages as others. It would be impossible to have the whole world speak the same language. Even in countries with mandatory school attendance some are illiterate in their mother tongue.
MsColdCanada 1 year ago
Also, only a few countries have the language nationally, and they happen to be one of the most populated countries. Latin root languages are literally everywhere, english being the most used.
dranomania 1 year ago
honeslty, symbols to represent an object as a language is a terrible idea. Digitally, it is harder to give out information, and I cannot even imagine a chinese keyboard. As well as that, chinese is prone to give out mistranslations, and can effect information that might be important. Honestly, more people are learning english than chinese, and I personally think they are going the right way. Chinese is a good language to know, but it shouldnt be an international one
dranomania 1 year ago
@dranomania Why shouldn't it be an international wrong? Because you speak English and not Chinese?
Talk about linguistic imperialism....
thisusernameistaken2 1 year ago
@thisusernameistaken2 English is a mch more detailed language than chinese, which makes it better for global communication. I am not saying chinese is bad, but because of its faults it seems to me that it wouldn't be great. I do speak english, yes, but does that mean I don't want to learn chinese? No. And if you further read my arguement below, you can obiously see my arguements are true.
dranomania 1 year ago
@dranomania If by 'more detailed' you mean 'English has a larger lexicon', then you are correct. But I think you'll find that English's vocabulary has only become huge in recent years while English has been 'the international language'. The same thing will happen to Chinese.
thisusernameistaken2 1 year ago
@thisusernameistaken2 Your arguments below are false. Chinese does not use 'symbols to represent and object'. It uses lopographs. Most chinese words contain two characters, and each character has two parts. One part tells you the pronunciation and the other part tells you the rough meaning. It's not less efficient than an alphabet. A chinese keyboard is a normal alphabet keyboard. They type how a word sounds phonetically and the character is displayed on the screen.
thisusernameistaken2 1 year ago
@dranomania All languages are prone to mistranslations. Have you ever read English native speakers write in Chinese? I think you'd find it's just as bad as Chinese Engrish (which, by the way, is proof that English is not perfect as an international language).
Really, if you're going to criticise Chinese for being 'imperfect', maybe you should be proposing Esperanto, because English is just as hard as Chinese.
thisusernameistaken2 1 year ago
@thisusernameistaken2 Yes they are prone to mistranslations, but mistranslations are not the only thing. Since English is one of the most detailed languages out there, that means there are more words that define larger words to make the language easier. The alphabet system is much easier too, having to remember thousands of symbols to comprehend seems a bit much than 26 letters to remember to comprehend a word. And because of the symbols, many other aspects are effected. Keyboards is just 1 ex.
dranomania 1 year ago
Unless one is really into chinese culture or wants to be an intepreter, it's just a rediculous waste of time. The chinese are already learning english in much larger numbers.
OnRock19 1 year ago
Why should we be forced to learn Mandarin or Chinese? Are the jobs going to be relocated to China? There won't be opportunities in the USA any longer so I have to go to the god-damn East in order to have a career? Screw this.
ekateri28 1 year ago 2
most of the people in the world learn mandarin as a 1st language
kirachoujin 1 year ago
Neither Chinese nor Japanese will ever be a dominate language because it's symbol based and very limited in what it can do... for instance you can't arrange things in alphabetical order. Just like Egyptian Hieroglyphics, symbol based language is ancient language belongs in the past, and is unsuitable for this modern world. Besides what language will an Indian and a Chinese man use to communicate with each other? How about a German speaking to a Japanese? That's right, English. ;)
Asiats1 1 year ago
@Asiats1 : I agree with you. Chinese will never become the lingua franca (language of trade). That is because chinese did not colonize the world like the British. Plus, english is already established. Still, I am quite happy that people are learning more languages than just english. IN my country, chinese is already taught in addition to their native language and english.
I simply do not see Americans trashing this language like what they did to British english. balls, coconut, f&&&. >_>
Tentenlaw 1 year ago
@Tentenlaw Most Chinese when learning English they prefer the American accent because it's technically more accurate. Americans pronounce the words 'r' and 'e' where as British omits these sounds. Having said that English is constantly evolving and adapting from all cultures around the world. It's very flexible. Everyday there are new words added to the English dictionary for which there is no known translation in other langauges.. that's why it's so successful because absorbs other cultures.
Asiats1 1 year ago
@Asiats1
This language problem could be solved if everybody would start to learn Esperanto.
Exverlobter 1 year ago
@Exverlobter How? If everyone where to learn English it would work. Considering that a lot of people speak English and no-one speaks Esperanto.
blingadude 1 year ago
The thing is that 1.3 Billion Chinese are learning English.. and 1.5 Billion Indians mostly speak English. Last time I went to Beijing, half the road signs there were in English. I think 1000 years from now we'd all still be speaking English, unless an Alien invasion takes over the world lol.
Asiats1 1 year ago 2
dont learn european languages because europeans are speaking all good english.you can communicate with them in english.therefore,leraning their language would be a waste of time.in contrast,the chinese businessman cannot speak english well.thus ,its very important that you are able to speak their language whem you are involved in business.
240kankan 1 year ago
Speak Chinese!!!! bitches
easterlinear 1 year ago
@easterlinear Chinese language is too divided. There's cantonese, mandarin, Hakka, Min and hundreds more.. with Cantonese being the oldest and most difficult to learn. The present day Mandarin is a washed down version of the ancient language in China.
Asiats1 1 year ago
@Asiats1 mandarin is not a dialect its a language
kirachoujin 1 year ago
@kirachoujin no but in China there are many dialects. the problem is that Chinese isn't unified cause there are many languages.
Asiats1 1 year ago
@Asiats1 yea but do u even undertsnad what i am saying
kirachoujin 1 year ago
@kirachoujin Not yet, me Engrish not good so far
Asiats1 1 year ago
@Asiats1 Of course if China continues on its 1 child per couple path, AND India continues to have the same birth rate, within 20 years India will be the most populous country. Even though there are more than 20 different languages in India, if you went to school, you can speak, read, and write English very well. Chinese, like any language and especially Chinese is a VERY good language to know. 1seckelman
1seckelman 1 year ago
@1seckelman there are more than 20 different language in China too.. the most difficult and meaningful is Cantonese which has longer history than Mandarin. how many Indians can speak Chinese? how many Chinese can speak Indian?
Asiats1 1 year ago
@Asiats1 That is the whole point, English will continue to be used as the international language in business, science and technical matters. The U.S. is fast on the road to becoming a bilingual country Spanish/English, look at my videos at YouTube Search type: 1seckelman Joe
1seckelman 1 year ago
@1seckelman The US is not bilingual. Spanish is dying in the US as fast as any other language including the great German language of the 1800s. I teach in Los Angeles and 1st generation kids can understand Spanish but can't speak it fluently. Many second generation kids can't speak it at all. Listen to the Spanish radio or TV or newspaper most of it is for old Spanish speaking people.
garybsg 3 months ago
@1seckelman The cenus is wrong in the states. I live a county were it says that we have only 5,000 people, but we have over 30,000 kids alone.
mugenfan5 1 year ago
Learn Spanish, French, Italian, Portugues, or German. =)
bocanada81 1 year ago
Why should so many fags learn Chinese? This language is pictographic and totally inefficient!!!
Don't speak Chinese!!! (unless you're Chinese)
gewangew 1 year ago
@gewangew It is difficult to learn as a foreign language, but many characters are written so that they look like what they mean, unlike the Germanic and Romantic languages which only tell you how to pronounce the word. Also Chinese is far more aesthetically pleasing. :)
6clonedcows 1 year ago
@gewangew many Americans speak good chinese.the grammers of chinese are very simple.everyone could pick it up in a fash.just have a try.
240kankan 1 year ago
The kids will be fluent? I think that's an exaggeration, unless they go to an elementary school that continues the programm, their language is going to fall away.
Also, "English: No Longer The World Language" title is a bit ridiculous.
English will be the world language for the forseeable future, its highly unlikely that Mandarin (which I have learned for 4 years btw and love) will become a world language, not when its so concentrated in only two countries. It will never surpass English.
80smusicfanNO1 1 year ago
@80smusicfanNO1 actualy mandarin is already the most spokn language
kirachoujin 1 year ago
@kirachoujin
You kind of missed the whole point of the video huh?
80smusicfanNO1 1 year ago
Interesting how we say "American culture spreads" (as if it happened accidentally) but "China is spreading its culture", implying that China is imposing this on people. Spain has their Instituto Cervantes, the UK has the British Council, and Germany has its Goethe Institute.
In fairness, shouldn't this be reworded as "See how Chinese culture is spreading and gaining influence"?
haiqin 1 year ago
This is just another educational fad. These fads come and go. In the 1980's, there was a educational program called "The Better Baby Institute". I have lately been seeing ads on late-night television for a similar program.
txvoltaire 1 year ago
More likely English will continue to absorb some Chinese aspects worldwide, similar to how English in the southern US have absorbed some Spanish, Australia some Aborigine, and similar with English in Africa and Asia. Because of this versatile quality of English the language will probably remain as the dominant language in business, science, and travel for a while to come. But learning multiple languages doesn't hurt.
SPYK3O 1 year ago
I will be honest with you, China is a big market. They are trying to become the next language spoken in America. I hope it doesnt happen but at the rate at it's going, it is possible.
Rbmrm 1 year ago
Fuck chinese, few will bother learning a language where you have to memorize 50,000 characters just to learn to read and write.
I know chinese people in other countries who despite studying at chinese school for 12 years still can't read a newspaper
FieryBalrog 1 year ago
@FieryBalrog I think is because that newspaper is a different language.... And there is only 20,000 Chinese characters that is still know, and you don't have to learn all of them, just like English, you don't have to learn all the English words to read and write. In fact, most of the Chinese words are useless.
jaiqi 1 year ago
@sandrodream1 Yet there is original derivation.
janissary211 1 year ago
There is one potential superpower that might use English as its unifying factor. And that is India.
janissary211 1 year ago
fuck china
amicusnemini 1 year ago
@sandrodream1 Which is a derivation of Greek. Χα χα χα χα!
SlimeTron5000 1 year ago
It is the sounds that count, not the logo graph characters.
SlimeTron5000 1 year ago
I´m german. English is easyer for me.
Gott2070 1 year ago
I hope that's not the case. English is much much more easier to learn than Chinese, based on experience.
radomu1 1 year ago
In high school, i elected to take Mandarin as my required second language in 98....
its HAAARRRDDD...
unplugged123 1 year ago
Chinese is the official language of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore & Macau. Their population alone is probably larger than those countries u mentioned combined.
Chinese don't have trouble with the language, it doesn't have much to do with the writing system, it's just sometimes people in HK & Taiwan can't recognise some of the new simplified characters that are used in Mainland China & Singapore. It's easy to get the hang of reading simplified characters if u already know the language.
Rab1975bit 1 year ago
@Rab1975bit chinese isn't a language the offcial language of chinese is mandarin
kirachoujin 1 year ago
@kirachoujin R u one of those who like to be argumentative just for the sake of it?! That wasn't even my point!
Mandarin is a spoken language. Chinese is the written language of those countries I mentioned before. The official written language isn't called Mandarin. People of those countries speak different languages & dialects, The word 'Chinese 中文' is generally used to identify the Chinese language family of all the Chinese languages spoken in China & other Chinese speaking countries.
Rab1975bit 1 year ago
@Rab1975bit ok
kirachoujin 1 year ago
Then you must admit that English is not a language that it is a series of dialects: English, American, Canadian, Australian and etcetera. Not doing so is annoyingly selective bias.
SlimeTron5000 1 year ago
@Rab1975bit mandarin is not a dialect it the main language of chinese
kirachoujin 1 year ago
@kirachoujin Who the hell said Mandarin was a dialect??? Please read people's comments properly before replying!
Rab1975bit 1 year ago
Then you must admit that English is not a language that it is a series of dialects (English, American, Canadian, Australian and etcetera).
SlimeTron5000 1 year ago
I don't want Chinese to became the most international language, it is pretty difficult to learn.
vid1815 1 year ago
do u guys know that mandarin is the main language of chinese
kirachoujin 1 year ago
English cant compete Againnist Mandarian! If the population Of the mandarian lowers English can compete!
MattonRunescape 2 years ago
i am a filipino..if the chinese language is already expanding in the whole world..well sorry i don't wnna waste my time of studying chinese because in philippines we already used to speak english all the time or we used to speak our langyuage with some enlish sentences that's what we called'' taglish'' or tagalog-english
jexxy18 2 years ago
Moreover, Americans in general can't even manage basic rules of the English language such as subject/verb agreement. In addition, Chinese is a language associated with a brutal regime that has no freedom of religion and oppresses people in a cruel vicious way. Chinese will never unify humanity like English has. Chinese is a racial language associated with one group--the CHINESE--whereas English is spoken by a richly diverse group of diverse nations and many different ethnolinguistic groups.
amerenio 2 years ago
1. There is no spoken "Chinese language".
2. Brutal regime? Yeah, because the imperialistic British Empire was perfectly pacifist and never oppressed anybody. -_-
3. There is no "Chinese" race. "Chinese" is a nationality consisting of 56 different ethnicities, including Russian, Korean, Tibetan, and Uyghur.
VictimOfBoredom 2 years ago
@amerenio R u serious? Do u even know anything about the Chinese language & the British & American history?
1. Chinese is not a race, it's a nationality.
2. U think the British were so sympathetic to their colonial subjects? Some of their colonies lost their native cultures & languages bcos they were forced to speak English. (i.e. the Irish). The British were oppressive. Stirred up religious conflicts in India, many people were killed. Tricked & Forced China to buy opium & sign unfair contracts.
Rab1975bit 1 year ago
@amerenio
Americans killed off almost the entire population of Native Americans, put Africans in Slavery, Irag wars, those were pretty brutal... As one of the wealthiest countries in the world they don't even take care of their own people to give free health care.
What u on about brutal regime. Of course, these things r justifiable, right?
The West loves to associate cultures with politics & governments. It's like saying u should b blamed for what ur government's done. It's kinda ignorant.
Rab1975bit 1 year ago
Can Chinese be written using the Latin alphabet? 'Cause if it isn't they should introduce it like in Vietnamese and more people will probably learn it.
Freshbott2 2 years ago
that will only help minimally. Each Chinese word still has one of four tones and a hard grammar because it is so different, simple but very different.
amerenio 2 years ago
lol the last thing u can say about chinese is that its grammar is hard =P and the grammar structure in which order to put words isnt that different from english. learning chinese fluently without the writing part can be done very fast, faster than french for example.
yasashii89 2 years ago
no, that is not true at all. there is basic subject and predicate like in English. you are lying and forgetting that Chinese sentences are structured like English and or French. they are very different. just look at all the mistranslated signs in China. it's bleeding obvious. if it were easy, Chinese would learn English very easily. The reality is that Chinese have always had difficulty learning English simply because both are so very very different, in spite of some small similarities.Tsai tien
amerenio 2 years ago
yea, they have difficulty learning english because the english grammar is far more complex to what theyre used to. english can still have a simulaur word order and still be very difficult, but for an english speaking person to learn chinese then, as long as theyre not an idiot, is pretty simple to learn especially compared to korean or japanese which will take far longer to learn. even the writing part, yes its time consuming but it is still straight forward, u only need a good memory
yasashii89 2 years ago
The grammar is not difficult. You can look at the hundreds of comments here saying that, and a friend of my mum's can speak Chinese and she said the tones are the only difficult part of it, otherwise it's just like learning any other language. And I mean if they can do tone with those symbols they could do it with a Latin alphabet. If it's because of the tradition, because people don't want it, then okay that's fine, but otherwise it would make sense.
Freshbott2 2 years ago
Uh...are you stupid? Vietnamese has more tones than Mandarin. -_-
Diacritics. Ever heard of 'em?
VictimOfBoredom 2 years ago
@Freshbott2 The Vietnamese language was forced to change due to the French invasion. It in many ways unsympathetically altered their traditions.
Why do you think China should change its writing system or romanise their language just for non-East Asians countries to learn. Would European countries Easternise their languages so that Asians can easily learn them??
To learn a foreign language takes dedication and time, & u'd just have to adapt.
U probably don't mean to but it's a bit offensive.
Rab1975bit 1 year ago
@Rab1975bit
I'm not saying invade China. You'd be insane to. And I don't see how Latinising the language would harm traditions, particularly if you allowed the Chinese to do it themselves. And it's not necessarily so they can learn European languages, namely English, which they all do anyway so it would help tonnes. I read not that long ago about people trying to introduce full capacity for Chinese and similar languages in the internet, but it would wreak havoc on DNS systems or something.
Freshbott2 1 year ago
So if China is going to have a larger hold in internet services and foreign learners, it'd make a pretty good start.
Or they could simply alter the way they use their language, like the way Japanese was all complicated but then they just changed it so their system works very European like for simplicity. No loss of traditions or anything.
Freshbott2 1 year ago
English is a logical language.
That's why you park your car on he driveway and drive your car on the parkway.
Osterochse 2 years ago
So a few people outside of China are learning Mandarin. Meanwhile in China, everyone learns English starting in third grade, and continuing at least until they graduate high school. And the same kind of thing is happening all over the world. English has won.
sketerpot 2 years ago
not really chinese did
kirachoujin 2 years ago
These kids who are learning Chinese will never have to use it. English is the language of business, the internet, Hollywood.
Dirtfire 2 years ago
chinese has to be the most boring language i have ever learned... =P
yasashii89 2 years ago
anyone who learns mandarin is pinko scum, and a traitor to his country.
D76straight 2 years ago
Uh,so what if a huge ammount of people speak Chinese?
Geographically,it isn't so widely spoken ,it is mostly spoken by people from the PRC,a land many many people consider to be corrupt and oppressive.
Why not teach various Turkic languages/dialects,and other widely spoken languages,such as Russian,Serbian,French,Persian,and Arabic?
Dudtz 2 years ago
Esperanto!!!!! La latino de la demokratio!!!
Maximus3Izzus 2 years ago
i was thinking of learning mandarin but it sounds to hard, im already 18years old, and im bilingual, in English and Spanish,
i live in California, USA. all i do know is that Nin hao, means hello in chinese
micheljr17 2 years ago
What is the most spooken laguage somebody i need this tel me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
mugenfan5 2 years ago
chinese, is the most spoken language right now but thats when they put all types of chinese together, mandarin, cantonese...etc..
then English...
and i know spanish, is the fourth or fith im not sure
micheljr17 2 years ago
Chinese
sk8tertater 2 years ago
shiiiiiiiiiit!!!!!!! why chinese? there are many other better, easier and more influent languages like spanish or japanese!
atizablaze 2 years ago 2
every one is hard in its right
sk8tertater 2 years ago
actually chinese is kinda easy. the writing makes it look hard and yes it takes time, but the language has almost no grammar at all... and lol japanese, its WAAAY harder than chinese trust me.
yasashii89 2 years ago
the grammar is simplified but still very very different from other languages. the words are pictures which takes a very long time to learn. THEN there are FOUR tones which each word may have so you have to get the tone right to convey the right meaning. sorry , but Chinese is extremely hard and is identified with one race while English is is a global language rich in vocabulary from all parts of the world and represents free, democratic countries
amerenio 2 years ago
so all the English speaking people learn Chinese...but on the other side Chinese people are learning English...cant we make it easier and just all speak one or the other? lol
fuzzyballz 2 years ago
finally!!! now i dont have to fucking learn french anymore!!! lol i only gotta wait 1 more year
HeadShotted001 2 years ago
"2. At best you can type about eight words a minute using a keyboard."
Sorry I have to say something here but what the hell kind of typing system are you using? Either the system is retarded or you're just slow as hell. I can't personally type very fast coz I'm not used to but I know plenty of people who type (and txt) in Chinese if just slightly slower than in English.
DeathKnight725 2 years ago
And Hong Kong speaks a great deal of English and Indian.
nickobot01 2 years ago
Well, Language will likely depend on the changing economics of English and Chinese speaking countries. I wonder if China will stay China, especially since the eastern provinces want to separate from the west and in places like Hong Kong and Taiwan, people do not recognize themselves as Chinese.
nickobot01 2 years ago
Chinese will NEVER be the World Language for a number of reasons.
1. It is not ONE homogenous language in China,
2. At best you can type about eight words a minute using a keyboard.
3. Most Chinese speakers are at best semi-literate because of the complicated writing system.
4. Computer languages are based on English and English logic.
5. Chinese tone systems are incredibly difficult for the adult ear, without them it is impossible to understand the language unless you begin as a child.
Brythonek 2 years ago
Here's why you got some of the points wrong.
No.1, Cantonese and other languages are very similar when written. Its jut different pronounciations.
No.3, How many English speakers excels in English Language.
No.4, Can you foretell the future?
No.5, Its just that you never learned Chinese before. Same thing happens to me when I listen to German tone.
Aung1988 2 years ago
No 1. No they are not.. Cantonese as something like 8 tones whereas Mandarin has $-5 tones. I know Cantonese speakers personally who say they cannot understand Mandarin.
All Chinese dialects are written in the same way because the language uses pictographs it doesn't matter- even Japanese shares many picotgraphs allowing a Japanese speaker to read "a little"-. the languages being unrelated.
3. Being literate does not make you Shakespeare yet being illiterate completely limits you.
Brythonek 2 years ago
Oops-- read 4-5 tones for Mandarin.
No. 5- The tone system along with pronounciation is developed in the first 8 years of a child's life when its hearing is more sensitive. This is why children get accents and bi-lingual children speak "perfectly", yet adults hardly ever lose their accent. Whereas in German or English this doesn't matter so much, in tonal "pronunciant" dependent languages like Chinese it is a great obstacle.
Brythonek 2 years ago
No.1, My point is even though Chinese language has so many different languages, for them its not hard to learn Mandarin. No offense but most Cantonese cannot understand Mandarin becos. they stay in their own world, mostly illiterate.
No.2 You cannot say that Chinese typing system wouldn't improve at all.
No.3 So you shouldn't blame on the writing system but Chinese people's fate. They got addicted to Opium wars; World War II; Civil War; Communist Repression.
Aung1988 2 years ago
No.5 Have you ever learned Chinese and considered it too difficult to speak or understand? If I never learned English since childhood, I would not be able to speak or understand at all. You must understand the fact that Asians learn Asian languages better than European languages. The closer to you, the better you learn it. Btw.... are you Asian?
Aung1988 2 years ago
Unless you want to talk about sprachbunds, in which many characteristics, including tone, can vary from each language within, there's no such thing as "Asian" or "European" languages. With the exception of loaned vocabulary (a lot of it bearing little phonological similarity to the original Chinese) Japanese is as different from Chinese as English is from Turkish. The textbook example is that Japanese is agglutinative whereas Chinese is almost purely isolating.
cockroach2 2 years ago
world
kirachoujin 2 years ago
They used to say that about Japanese. It was a fad! The languages that continue to spread are English and Spanish,
coltzin12 2 years ago
well u cant stop people from believeing tht chinese is the most spoken language cuz if they believe in they believe in it so theirs no way tht u cant stop them
kirachoujin 2 years ago
It may be the most swpoken language in the world, but it's still a shit language because you have to learn thousands of symbols to read&write it, everybody must agree that this isn't very eficient ...
CizzarGX 2 years ago
I think that it is a good idea not to learn a 2nd language, but to learn several languages. In America we need to start teaching for spanish, and many eastern asia dialects.
galacticdude7 2 years ago
chinese is the most spoken language
kirachoujin 3 years ago
...in China.
Brythonek 3 years ago 2
chinese is the most spoken language not english and if you dont believe me search it up on youtube and not just tht theirs more chinese people in the whole world and theirs more people speaking chinese then english
kirachoujin 3 years ago
Um, no there's more people speaking English.
Chinese is obviously a more popular first language, but when it comes to number of speakers, English triumphs.
ukbestcountryevar 2 years ago
i meant on google
kirachoujin 3 years ago
no not really its actualy the most spoken language in the whole world actualy
kirachoujin 2 years ago
faugh, soon Esperanto will be... I hope
RoyalKnightVII 2 years ago
Whats important is that English has a greater range of use. There's a country on each continent of the world where English is one of the official languages. Number isn't important. As my dad said, the Chinese could conquer any country on earth just by giving every one of their citizens a pointy stick and saying "Go get 'em"
cockroach2 2 years ago
most of the people from around are chinese
kirachoujin 2 years ago
Yes there are lots of Chinese people. but their almost all in China, whereas English is spread across Britain, Ireland, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, etc. Range is what's important.
cockroach2 2 years ago
I am not a language expert but I am arguing from my experience. My mom is a French guide and she finds it so much easier than Chinese or Japanese. You know why? Its because French is very close to English. AND my chinese teacher always tells me that I can learn Japanese very easily because I know Chinese. Why is that?
Aung1988 2 years ago
French and English are related not only by them both being Indo-European languages, but by English having a large (identifyable) borrowed latinate vocabulary.
cockroach2 2 years ago
The only 2 things Japanese and Chinese have in common are borrowed Chinese vocabulary in Japanese (much of it having undergone change to the point where a Chinese speaker couldn't recognize its meaning) and a "common" writing system that has so many differences (kana, word order, different meanings of characters) that it's use as a relational advantage is, in my opinion, slight. To give a further analogy, English and Turkish share an alphabet. Is Turkish a "European" language?
cockroach2 2 years ago
Well that means that its easier for Japanese and Korean people to learn Chinese better than any Western countries. Sorry but i don't know anything about Turkish but I do know that half of its territory is in Europe. And also alot of European languages share alphabets with English. If you tell me Zulu language share a lot of similarities with English or Chinese, I would be surprised.
Aung1988 2 years ago
My comment about Turkish was that just because to languages share an alphabet doesn't mean it's that much easier to learn. The point I was trying to make is that the differences between Chinese and Japanese signifigantly outweigh their similarities. If you want me to go in depth and list of the differences, I can. I don't know much about Korean, but I imagine the problems are similar, since Japanese and Korean ARE rather similar grammatically.
cockroach2 2 years ago
Then why is it that Chinese can learn Japanese easier than English? I don't see your point anymore because you've been using unsupportive facts on this argument.
Aung1988 2 years ago
As I said, I'm more than willing to list specific, verifiable differences between Chinese and Japanese to make my point. How is that using "unsupportive facts"? In fact, you are the one not using facts by making the claim that Japanese people learn Chinese easier than English based on nothing but anecdotal evidence.
cockroach2 2 years ago
Fine... be my guest and list those differences.
Aung1988 2 years ago
Chinese is tonal, Japanese is not. Chinese is SVO, Japanese is SOV. Japanese is left branching whereas I believe Chinese, like most languages on the isolating side, including English, is right branching. Japanese has kana, a system most monolingual Japanese people are dependant on. Both the characters and the character combinations can differ between the two languages. Native Japanese has a vocabulary utterly alien to Chinese. These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
cockroach2 2 years ago
But what is your point you are trying to make?
Aung1988 2 years ago
That there are enough differences between the two languages that the experience is not the same as an English speaker trying to learn a language like French or German
cockroach2 2 years ago
But weren't you trying to prove that Japanese can learn English better than Chinese? If not you are way off the topic. However, just to remind you again that I'm not a language expert so instead of telling scholastically, do you know any Japanese people telling you that English is eaiser for them to learn than Chinese, IF they didn't learn English since childhood.
Aung1988 2 years ago