Will Spanish and Chinese overcome English?
As John had said, the grammar of Chinese is really simple. It has no tenses for verbs. You can judge different tenses by specific characters. For example, if there is a '了' after a verb, that must be the present perfect tense; if there is a '要' before a verb, then the sentence must be the future simple tense.
The nouns have no plurals. For example, 'two children' in Chinese is '两个孩子' (two child), 'two child' is correct in Chinese because the number 'two' has already indicated that there are more than one child. There is no need to cerate plurals for nouns in Chinese.
Also, the word-building of the Chinese language is simple. You only need to know about 2000 characters (there are nearly 50000 characters in Chinese), it's enough for daily life, even for most subjects.
For example, '牛肉' (beef) = '牛' (bull or cow) + '肉' (meat), so the word 'beef' should be 'bull meat' or 'cow meat' in Chinese; 'pork' should be 'pig meat'; 'mutton' should be 'sheep meat', etc. There is no need for you to remember extra words such as 'beef', 'pork', 'mutton'.
What does 'gastrectomy' mean? In Chinese it's simply '胃切除', that is '胃'(stomach) + '切除' (removal). You just need to know the words 'stomach' and 'removal'. With 2000 characters you can understand most sciences, even medicine.
Although the grammar of Chinese is simple, there are a lot of difficulties for fereigners to learn Chinese. For example, the four tones of Chinese,
the writings. Also, a character often has too many meanings.
Shiny
我"要"(想要)和你永远在一起! = I "want to" always stay with you together!
我"要"和你一起去意大利旅游! =I'm "going to" Italy with you to travel around!
毕业后我"将要"(将会)成为一个好医生! = I "will be" a good doctor after graduation!
CHINESE,
Is '和' ('和' = with) a verb? What I said is "a '要' before a VERB".
It's just a simple example, dont's take it SO seriously.
Chinese will be learned by those who want to do business inside parts of China and need to avoid the middleman to be in control of the operation. English will stay the language of business outside China. Spanish will rival with English because it is one of the most wide spread languages in the world. Brazil will become a Spanish speaking country adding to more power to Spanish as a world language.
I am studying Spanish and Japanese plus I am learning Chinese -
A belt and braces approach.
GODOT
<<<Brazil will become a Spanish speaking country adding to more power to Spanish as a world language.>>>
Excuse me, GODOT, I'm very curious about why you've always despise Portuguese and ignore its existence condition, you detest Portuguese?
Geoff_One
<<<I am studying Spanish and Japanese plus I am learning Chinese>>>
Please pay attention to the delicate difference between Mandarin's Hanzi and Japanese Kanji.
For Example: 勉强(Japanese)=学习(Mandarin)
大丈夫(Japanese)=没关系<不要紧>(Mandarin)
<<Excuse me, GODOT, I'm very curious about why you've always despise Portuguese and ignore its existence condition, you detest Portuguese? >>
Don't worry about Portuguese, Chinese is best.
{Excuse me, GODOT, I'm very curious about why you've always despise Portuguese and ignore its existence condition, you detest Portuguese?}[Chinese]
Quite the opposite. I love the Portuguese language but Spanish will take over Brazil unless Brazilians take the necessary steps to avoid it.
What I see is that Brazilians do not have any interest in keeping the Portuguese language viable as their national language. Portuguese has desintegrated in many creoles in Brazil.
To keep the Portuguese language viable Brazilians need to respect it and take care of it. One thing is how people speak the language in the street another thing is the collective language.
Brazilians do not understand that their language is a romance language and that to keep the language coherent they need to stay connected to the language root which is mostly Latin.
They are coining new words and tampering with older words without any reference to the core of the language.
GODOT
For some time, I tried to persuade myself to be keen on Spanish, but finally I failed to achieve this target, because the pronunciation of Spanish sounds just like harsh and rasping voice, due mainly to a mass of lisping and inexplicit pronunciation, not only less melodious than Italian, but also less softly than French, and less mildly than Portuguese, it's really a pity!
French sounds very nasally and softly.
Italian sounds very syllabically and melodically.
Portuguese sounds very moderately and neutrally, not only rhythmically, but also nasally.
Spanish sounds a little harsh because of superfluous LISPING labial pronunciation.
Do you think that Argentina will become a Portuguese speaking country very soon?
Is the Brazilian agenda as big as the Spanish agenda?
Is it also a question of time Argentina will be a Portuguese speaking country. What I say is even better informed:
http://www2.mre.gov.br/dai/b_argt_413_5650.htm
{Do you think that Argentina will become a Portuguese speaking country very soon? } [Estragon]
There are factors to consider. Argentina is a proud Spanish speaking country. The Spanish language is respected in Argentina. Argentinians are not rejecting their Spanish heritage.
With Brazil you have a country that has rejected the Portuguese heritage along with the Portuguese language which is desintegrating in various creoles.
Brazil has become a target of opportunity for Spanish for obvious reasons. It will take a few generations but it will happen because the process has already begun.
But Brazilian school system is so bad! What makes you think that they will not do the same or even worst to the Spanish language?
Isn't the Spanish in Latin America different from that spoken in Europe? Will it not desintegrate in various creoles?
The Portuguese language is not respected by the Brazilians? Is it not prefered by the most appraised writers as the literary language?
Mention a famous Brazilian writer that writes in the vernacular Brazilian.(not considering dialogues)
What is considered the acrolect? Acrolects are not respected?
Chinese
With politics aside. Do you consider Japanese a beauiful language? I love the Japanese language and culture. I think their language has to be one of the most beauiful languages in the world. Sometimes I think the Japanese speak like if they are reading poetry. Old English is like poetry too though but not as pleasant to the ear as Japanese.