How d u think Chinese wud replace English as lengua franca?

<<If people from different parts of China want to talk to each other, they speak English, because that's the only language common throughout China.>>

Putonghua(Mandarin) is the dialect used by people from different parts of China to talk to each other. They don't speak English.

<<On top of this, it's the twenty-first century, and China still doesn't have an alphabet!>>

Why would the Chinese language need an alphabet at all?

>> Why would the Chinese language need an alphabet at all? <<

To make it easy for foreigners to learn it. Otherwise many people will give up trying to learn it.

<<At least it's an interesting language. There is nothing dull about Chinese.
If you like music, it has tones and Chinese people like to sing, so there are songs to learn. If you like to draw, there is calligraphy. If you are interested in Chinese medicine, you can find out more. If you like challenges... >>


Those things are irrelevant. For 99.5% of people, how "interesting" a language is is the same as how interesting is the material that you can access using that language. English is learnt because it has the most "interesting" (or rather most varied and complete) information on a huge number of subjects. Yes, for Chinese medicine, Chinese is better than English, but this is a very specialised interest and the people into this make up 0.001% above. The sum of all these specialised interests makes up the 0.5% from above. Not a lot, is it.
On the other hand English is the only vessel to the important and hence "interesting" things that make society work.
There are no such areas of knowledge where Chinese is even middlingly important.

<< On top of this, it's the twenty-first century, and China still doesn't have an alphabet! >>

Alphabet is good and convenient for those whose brain has yet to evolve.
But it's really boring, monotonous and lack of creativity to the Chinese mind.

<<Alphabet is good and convenient for those whose brain has yet to evolve.
But it's really boring, monotonous and lack of creativity to the Chinese mind.>>

On the contrary, alphabets are for those who have evolved. Hieroglyphics is a primitive, early form of writing.

China has no intention of dominating the world. It never did and it never will.
It's western mindset to try incessantly to conquer and dominate the world....and they live in constant fear of being dominated or replaced...

***The UK is a major player in Europe....***

The UK is no more influential than any other European country. I'd really like to think that every single one of the 27 countries currently making up the European Union are playing a major part in its operation - certainly that is the ultimate objective....no one country being "more important" or "more significant" than any other.

Maybe the "New Europe" is now in the same situation as the developing United States of America was in the mid to late 19th century and the very early 20th century.and who knows - maybe by the middle of the present century we Europeans will be living in the USE - the United States of Europe....aka Europa. How nice and comforting that sounds, and even if we reach that status I doubt very much that we would aim to achieve any kind of dominance over any of the other similar global entity....that is not what Europeans desire.

However it is undeniably true that English is now the dominant Language in the New Europe (or Europa as many people like to call it, especially over there on the Continent) and that is certainly not due to any kind of plot or scheming by the predominantly monoglot British. It's just the way things have panned out in the EU, most probably because of the huge influence English now has across the world. Even our dear friends and close neighbours the French have, reluctantly but Gallically gallantly, accepted this, even though they still insist on using French when they announce their votes in the Eurovision Songfest Contest when eveyr other country in Europa uses English.....aw! bless! We really do love them - a bit like choosing who your friends are but not your family members you've been lumbered with. ;-)

http://europa.eu/abc/european_countries/index_en.htm

China will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years - its economic and technical developments have been nothing short of miraculous in recent years...we must remember that their civilisation goes back many centuries in time, and much of it is to be admired.

All they need to do now is to deal with the Human Rights issue but that's their business.

As for the Chinese Language - apparently it looks much more difficult and complicated than it really is, and this begs the question in Western minds of whether or not all those characters can adapt to the technical age - it seems that it does. And in any case I believe that once all those characters are mastered the grammar and syntax in Chinese is really very easy.

The former Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil, Somerset, England - Paddy Ashdown - fluent in Chinese - partly educated at Hong Kong uni and an official Chinese interpretor - said that Mandarin Chinese is, in many ways, much easier to learn and master than a good many European Languages.

Erratum:

<I'd really like to think that every single one of the 27 countries currently making up the European Union *IS* playing a major part in its operation>

>> <I'd really like to think that every single one of the 27 countries currently making up the European Union *IS* playing a major part in its operation <<

Yes, you'd *like* to think that. But Britain still has a lot more influence than most of the other countries in the EU. And not only through the EU. And there are other ways of influencing Europe that have nothing to do with the EU.

>> Even our dear friends and close neighbours the French have, reluctantly but Gallically gallantly, accepted this <<

I beg to differ.

>> China will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with in the coming year <<

Certainly. But this does not mean a Empire, or entertainment capital of the world, which is the reason for the spread of English. And China will still have poverty, overpopulation, and a only partly free government to contend with.

<<The UK is no more influential than any other European country. I'd really like to think that every single one of the 27 countries currently making up the European Union are playing a major part in its operation - certainly that is the ultimate objective....no one country being "more important" or "more significant" than any other.>>


Haha! That's a good one. You would "like" to think that because the reality is MUCH different. And you'd better hope Turkey doesn't join the EU!


<,<Maybe the "New Europe" is now in the same situation as the developing United States of America was in the mid to late 19th century and the very early 20th century.and who knows - maybe by the middle of the present century we Europeans will be living in the USE - the United States of Europe....aka Europa. How nice and comforting that sounds, and even if we reach that status I doubt very much that we would aim to achieve any kind of dominance over any of the other similar global entity...>>


Doesn't sound very comforting to me! I will certainly be joining the "Resistance" in the civil war that will ensue.


<<I doubt very much that we would aim to achieve any kind of dominance over any of the other similar global entity....that is not what Europeans desire. >>


Um, Europeans desire the status-quo. The status-quo is precisely based on domination over other nations.

<<Chinese has not done any of these things.>>

Not yet -- will they start once their military becomes invincible?

<<And Chinese itself is fractured into a number of dialects, some not even mutually intelligible, even within China.>>

Aren't there many mutually unintelligible (spoken) dialects of English, many of them in the UK itself?

>> Aren't there many mutually unintelligible (spoken) dialects of English, many of them in the UK itself? <<

Very few. And the difference between the Chinese "dialects" is similar to the difference between English and Italian, rather than between two different dialects of English.

>> Not yet -- will they start once their military becomes invincible? <<

Why the heck would they do that?

Colonisation is not so easy in modern times. In the old days you would colonise a country with weak or no organisation and people with primitive technology. These days, the only country you could hope to colonise are maybe Papua New Guinea or Malawi. Any developed Western country is uncolonisable, because of nukes. No matter what happens to the USA or any other country, nukes will not disappear. History shows military is the last thing people will give up in a crisis.

There would be a huge international outcry if China tried to conquer Papua New Guinea. It's not going to happen, folks.

Only a western country, or a country under the influence of western culture like Japan, would try to conquer another country and exterminate its people.