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

Shuimo   Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:44 am GMT
How d u think Chinese wud replace English as lengua franca?
MollyB   Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:53 am GMT
The spoken form maybe, but never the written form.
Damian London E14   Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:05 am GMT
Why not use correct spellings instead of txtspk in an English Language forum, especially in a thread heading? It dsnt lk gd duz it? And try lingua instead.

There are more speakers of the varieties of Chinese than there are of English, and we all know that China will eventually become the world's prime economic and, most probably, military power, which is why the learning of (Mandarin) Chinese is gaining momentum across the globe.

Some British educational institutions are, indeed, replacing curriculum Continental European Languages with courses on Mandarin Chinese, if that's any indication of future developments globally as we all begin to look "East" rather than "West.
Shuimo   Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:19 am GMT
Damian London E14 Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:05 am GMT
Why not use correct spellings instead of txtspk in an English Language forum, especially in a thread heading? It dsnt lk gd duz it? And try lingua instead.

==============
Ooooops, I did it again!:-)Sorry!
Shuimo is bad in spelling!
guest   Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:19 am GMT
<<we all know that China will eventually become the world's prime economic>>

I wouldn't be too sure of that. China's growth is not sustainable and is already showing signs of faltering.
LexDiamondz   Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:49 pm GMT
No.

Remember that part of the reason for English's becoming a lingua franca was not simple American dominance, but the fact that it succeeded the UK as the preeminent global power. England had already established itself as an imperial power and the language thus spread through empire-building, and spread further after the ascencion of the United States.

On the other hand, China is not an imperial power and has not been for some time. Although China is an economic powerhouse its cultural influence on a global scale PALES in comparison to the influence of the west. More Chinese are learning western languages than the other way around, and the influence of Chinese culture outside of Asia is negligible.
doomseeer   Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:13 pm GMT
<< Although China is an economic powerhouse its cultural influence on a global scale PALES in comparison to the influence of the west>>

The easiest way (but perhaps not the fastest) is for China to become the overwhelming leader in science, technology, higher education, entertainment, culture, etc., displacing the West. Combined with overwhelming economic and manufacturing superiority, a new "5 sons" policy and a burgeoning population they could dominate the world of useful information, enticing the rest of the world to learn Chinese to avoid being left behind in the dust.

A faster (but potentially more difficult) way is to engage in a huge military buildup, combine the 30+ million "bare branches" plue the output of a huge manufacturing and technologial base into an invincible military steamroller, and dominate the world politically and militarily. China would then call the linguistic shots, one way or another.

Of course, they could do both of the above.
Paltroski   Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:52 pm GMT
"The easiest way (but perhaps not the fastest) is for China to become the overwhelming leader in science, technology, higher education, entertainment, culture, etc., displacing the West."

I don't think this will ever happen, if history is any indication. Why? The Chinese have never been good innovators; their strength is in their marketing skills.

As for Chinese becoming the new lingua franca? I don't think so for the simple reason that it's too difficult to learn.
China   Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:54 pm GMT
>> n, enticing the rest of the world to learn Chinese to avoid being left behind in the dust <<

Hmm. I don't know. I don't really anyone here who is fluent in Chinese, except people with Chinese or Taiwanese or Singaporean parents who taught it to them when they were young. Also, although some high schools here offer Chinese, many of them don't. I don't really feel a "push" to learn Chinese. Outside of China, Taiwan, and Singapore and a few other places, it's completely useless. It's not like learning Spanish, where you can use it in not only Spain, but also in Mexico, Central, and South America. French is useable in Quebec and in France. I probably will never travel to China in my life--I have about as much of a chance of picking China as a travel destination than Vietnam or India. It's a really long flight, and expensive too. And here it's known mostly for its overpopulation, internet and media censorship, and in the rural areas, extreme poverty. Parents still say things like "Finish all your greenbeans, or we'll mail it to some poor starving child in China." Also, the government sounds rather unfree, and undemocatic that has to set draconian laws to prevent overpopulation, and severe penalties for various things. Compare this to Japan. Japan is known for being the technologically advanced country, with a free government. Most kids today read Manga and watch hours and hours of Japanese Anime. Other than reading some 1000 year old Chinese book in history class, I've never read a book originally written in Chinese. Well, actually I take that back, I read a book on some martial art/spiritual type thing that is *banned* in China. I had to stop reading as the translation was so bad that it was nearly unintelligible. So, IMO, the cultural influence of modern day China on me is practically zilch. I do like Chinese food though. I just can't see a gazillion Americans suddenly rushing out to learn Chinese unless they were planning a trip to China, or they. Needed to learn it to communicate with their parents. In fact, by contrast with the European language classes, many of the people in Chinese class were either 1) their parents speak Chinese but never taught them; 2) They were Chinese themselves and wanted an easy A; 3) they were Japanese immigrants and wanted to learn an "easy" language because they already knew the characters.

English didn't get to be the lingua franca mundis because the Anglophone countries had "good economies". It was the result of the colonization of the world by Britain and the US. Also because of the entertainment industry. On that front, Japan has a much better chance.

Colonization has gone out of favor with the world now, so unless China decides to become a very agressive country, and conquers Mexico or something, risking WWIII, don't see how it will work out that China will start to dominate anything but Asia. Unless they start exporting their music, and start rivalling Hollywood, in the entertainment business.
K. T.   Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:06 pm GMT
It depends where you are, but for me, I see Mandarin as a good language to learn. On the other hand if I didn't know some Chinese characters already from Japanese, it would seem like a hugely difficult language.

The tones and the characters seem like too big of a burden for many people who are too lazy to learn even a European language.

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...

I love languages, but I've come to the conclusion, that it's not really a special thing to do. Yes, it helps to be a good mimic, be outgoing and have a good memory, but largely it's a matter of effort and listening.
So, even Mandarin is in the reach of some people (but honestly, I have only met a couple of westerners, and one African who have studied it and all of them were very, very bright already and had a few languages under their belt before they went for Chinese.)
India   Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:42 pm GMT
I thought India was also going to become a superpower. Won't that help spread English as the lingua franca? Although I highly doubt that people would learn "Indian English".
roomier China   Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:39 pm GMT
<<I thought India was also going to become a superpower.>>

It will likely be a lesser superpower than China, especially if China plays its cards right and builds up its population in anticipation of expanded borders and additional living room.

(Of course, the future is unpredictable, and anything can happen.)
Eddy   Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:47 am GMT
There is of course Brazil. Its land area is almost the same as that of China and infact Brazil and the rest of the Portugese speaking world has a land area significantly larger than that of China, Taiwan and Singapore.

Brazil has a very large population. It produces more Beef than the USA and in less than 10 years it is expected to be the World's largest agricultural producer. Brazil already produces its own commerical passenger Jet Aircraft which it exports to the world, therefore competing directly with Boeing and Airbus.

The future lingua franca of the world may therefore be Portugese.
Uriel   Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:55 am GMT
I don't see it happening, because Chinese isn't spoken much outside of China. Yeah, there may be a lot of Chinese, but they still are mainly found in that one area of the world, and their language isn't used to communicate with people in other parts of the world. English has the advantage of being far-flung across the globe -- old world, new world, northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere -- and because the countries where English is spoken often have a large regional sphere of influence around them -- and then these spheres interact with each other on top of that. The UK is a major player in Europe, Australia has a wide influence on its immediate neighbors, and the US and Canada dominate North America.

On top of that, English was introduced in various colonial parts of Africa and Asia as a common trade language, Chinese has not done any of these things. And Chinese itself is fractured into a number of dialects, some not even mutually intelligible, even within China.
Another Guest   Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:28 am GMT
Why would "Chinese" (there's no such language, by the way) become the world's lingua franca, when it's not even the lingua franca in China? 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. On top of this, it's the twenty-first century, and China still doesn't have an alphabet! How can a language become a lingua franca when it doesn't have an alphabet?