will the chinese/mandarin language be the international language soon?
im English educated chinese guy and i dont know how to read or write but i know how to speak mandarin. what i afraid is that chinese language will be the international language soon as china is getting greater and better. i already feel upset that i dont know chinese and i heard from a friend said that chinese is getting popular so she gonna let his children to learn chinese in the future.
and i know some of u will say that i can still learn mandarin and etc but i dont have such time and such money to learn. it costs almost 0 per month to learn to write and read mandarin.
so, is it true? chinese/mandarin language will become the international language soon?
Tags: china, chinese guy, chinese language, Chinese Mandarin, how to speak mandarin, international language, mandarin language, money
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
Well, why is English an international language? Sure, we have economic and political clout, but it’s more than that. A lot of technical innovations come from English-speaking countries, which makes people want to learn English to get access to them. A lot of the best universities are in the English speaking world. A huge amount of English-language entertainment material is being produced, which is hooked to a distribution system that carries it around the world, where it has a large presence in almost every corner of the world.
How does China stack up? There’s not a lot of technical innovation — they’re still busy trying to catch up, and import a lot of new technologies. Their schools are developing, and graduates have a good level of knowledge, but not compared to Harvard and Yale. Their entertainment stars are only popular in Asia, with minimal impact in America, unless they speak English and go to Hollywood, if they’re actors. Musicians don’t even have that option — Coco Lee was pretty ig in Asia, and can speak English pretty well, but when she tried to break into the American market, she went nowhere.
So, in short, China is a growing country, and many people are trying to link up with it, so knowing the language will help you act as a bridge into the region. It’s not a language that is going to project itself very far past its borders and become an international language anytime soon.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
a couple of centuries isn’t that soon…
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
I don’t think this will happen any time soon. English is already fairly well established as the only truly global international language and I don’t think there is a need for another one, as international communication proceeds very well with English as a vehicle.
It may well be that this will happen in the very long term if, as some people are predicting, the Western economies are heading for decline and collapse around the middle of the current century. But we are unlikely to be facing this scenario in our lifetimes.
I would still recommend you learn Chinese, as it is your cultural heritage and a very educational experience. You can do this for much less than $300 a month – you can go and buy some decent study materials from Amazon or a bookshop, like "Chinese in Steps" (Cedar Publishing) and teach yourself, and maybe take one class a week.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
I’m a chinese who’ve learnt chinese since like 3 years old (no, I’m NOT from China) but still speaks and writes poorly at it.
And I’m not bothered if it becomes an international language or not because English’ll still be an internationational language and the more commonly known one. Hurray
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
I thought already am.
I am planning to write novels in chinese actually, with its english version, hahaha…
May be not in Malaysia, some celaka people beh tahan kita orang cina punya language become powerful and wide spread, you tahu lah.
Anyway, don’t count on it, lots of KL kids came out from private secondary school cannot speak or write fluent english and malay, make that quite useless also.
You got children ah? send them to Chinese school lah, then you learn from them, senang loh. Get a dictionary.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
I wish the international language was french =)
A common mistake is not distinguishing between Mandarin and Cantonese .. it’s never too late for you to learn to read + write in Mandarin, you already have the advantage of being able to speak it right .. it will become an international language of prestige, but I don’t see it overtaking English, if for no other reason that the alphabet is different than that used by billions worldwide.