One World Language

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I sometimes wonder if in say 50 years time or something if we will all be talking Chinese.

It's a serious enough thought to me. I see people constantly plugged into those ear pod things and I think they're being slowly but surely converted into talking Chinese in some subliminal way. I don't know why I think Chinese specifically but I think it's something to do with that fact that it's the one that people would least suspect so it's just easy for it to happen.

This might all seem like the ramblings of a mad human but it's very real for me. I don't obsess over it and it doesn't really bother me either but it's just something that I wonder about and have a feeling about.

More and more people are speaking English these days, so if it would happen with any language in the very distant future, I think it would be English at this point. English is often used as a common language among diplomats in European countries. A podcaster I listen to is French, his girlfriend is Polish, and they speak English together. With all that being said, it wouldn’t happen any time soon if ever.

I love languages and hope that it doesn’t happen. It’s sad when languages die out.

Well, China does have the biggest population in the world so with approx 1,118 million speakers of Mandarin you might think it would be the first choice of a 'One World Language'. However, English has approx 1,452 million speakers.

I wonder how many of them also speak Chinese

The Chinese put a lot of time and effort into learning young Chinese people, English as a foreign language.

English is going to be important for the forseeable future.

It is also relatively easy to learn for a non-native speaker, versus say, the different types of Chinese which are notoriously hard to learn, especially for European tongues.

Oh well that's a shame.

And I can't see it being the English language that I know. It will be minus the colloquialisms and all spoken in one accent.

I can hear its going that way already. I sometimes feel as though it's my purpose to keep it alive.

The second biggest country in population size to China is India. And India relies upon the English language to function.

It was part of the British Empire. And because it has at least as many native regional languages as all of Europe they all learn English to communicate with each other (as well as with foreigners).

China was bullied around, but never fell to Britain, nor to any European power, but they still push the study of English on their youth.

But...if after listening to an Ipod you find that when you talk...that your lips keep moving for a few seconds after the sound has stopped coming out of your mouth...like the actors in dubbed Chinese martial arts movies then....that would mean that you might be on to something!

you're turning Chinese!

In 2050, the five largest countries are projected to be India (official languages: Hindi and English), China, the US (lingua franca: English), Nigeria (official language: English), and Pakistan (official languages: Urdu and English). In almost every country that isn't English-speaking, English is the most common foreign language in schools. I can walk around most of Europe speaking only English, but you cannot do that if you only speak Mandarin. Safe to say English is going to remain the language of international business.

I think it's more likely that we will invent universal instant translation before 2100 than the number of Sinitic language speakers passes the number of English speakers. China's demographic crisis is even worse than the US and the UK.