Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hondaicivic]

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/12/28/2010122800274.html

^I guess we can say goodbye to the hagwons and EPIK . Maybe the government will introduce CPIK (chinese program in Korea). Gotta brush up on my chinese soon.

[chris_J2]

Many schools in Korea already teach Chinese. Can't see English disappearing anytime soon. It's been around more or less in it's current form roughly 900 years or more, & still evolving.

From the article:

[southernman]

Considering the languages that the author considers as International at one time are Aramaic, Phoenician and Persian I don't really think you can take him seriously.

They may well have been important a couple of thousand years ago in the Mediterranean region and beyond but he seems to have a very etho-centric view of International. Just because people invaded the known world and ruled it back in the day, doesn't allow for the fact that there was a huge amount of countries/areas they didn't know about

I think I'll be good to go teaching English as long as I want to

[lowpo]

[southernman]

[ttompatz]

Better not tell the Chinese. They are importing English teachers as fast as they can find them.

I think that with more than 25% of the countries on the planet (54 in the commonwealth of nations + the USA and Philippines) and a combined population exceeding 2 billion (2005 estimated populations) - having English as either the primary language or at least listed as an official language the odds of it losing status as the lingua franca in the near future are small.

That is NOT however to discount the fact that Mandarin will be useful.

.

[Radius]

I heard IF the Chinese DO emerge as a global economic power, the business language of commerce would take some time to change...I'd say at least 20-25 years from now (and we'll all be on the verge of retiring anyway).
If you're China, good luck doing business with America then, too, because you know those American kids aren't going to put in the time to study the Chinese language.
Things like this takes decades to transition (barring any total and irreversable catastrophe to America or their ecomony---oh wait, too late...) Furthermore, I believe NY and D.C will get nuked one of these days, and then yeah, that'll usher the end of the once great empire (although I believe we're collapsing from within, and that'll crush us far more than any war). It happens to everyone, ask England and Rome.

[lifeinkorea]

That's only location based. There is no way people are going to learn Chinese at the same magnitude as English. Spanish or Arabic would seem more practical to use.

When they report people learning Chinese, are they referring to fluent speakers or people who take a few courses in Chinese and then stop? How many Chinese characters do they know?

[Riker]

Chinese will never be a world language for many reasons.

Firstly, Chinese writing has undergone multiple revisions to make written Chinese simpler but it is still not enough.

Secondly, English is used for research publications around the world, that is not going to change.

Honestly, Vietnamese and Hindi are easiest languages to read because they are so close to being perfectly phonetic. Vietnamese grammar is simply the easiest on the planet, period.

Hindi script ( Devanagari ) was designed to be picked up by a child easily. I learned how to read and write the alphabet in about 2 hours - In fact Devanagari means "childlike" - "easy"

[liveinkorea316]

I would have liked to have seen some dates in that article when he expects English to be replaced.

I could not imagine another language topping English due to Economic reasons for at least the next 30 years or maybe more.

Every year that English is the Lingua franca the longer it becomes harder to replace. Replacing it with chinese incurs major costs for many non-chinese countries and they would not suddenly switch without the perceived benefits reaching a very high level.

It is the lingua franca in Europe and many countries and will remain so there whether or not China is the global super power.

[Caffeinated]

[jvalmer]

Wow, you guys sound like the French. The French despise english ever since english became the dominant international language. Every language has it's time in the sun and then it fades, english included.

However, I don't see english fading for at least the next century. If China lives up to it's hype it will take until the next century when Chinese starts to replace english. That is if, a big IF, huge portions of the world, outside of China, deems Chinese worthy of prime international lingua franca status.

[Stalin84]

Chinese business transactions are already mostly conducted in English. Let's not forget, English is not a hard language to learn from Chinese and vice versa. I've met Chinese people that studied "a little bit" of English in High School that could speak in circles around my Korean co-teachers.

Considering how much time and effort China has been putting into learning English and considering that Chinese people speak English very well, English will remain the lingua franca. Let's not forget, the population of English speakers in China is soon to surpass the total number of English speakers in the United States. India will too.

[Space Cowboy]

Honestly, I hope we wind up with the kind of Chinese-infused English they used in Firefly. Neither language will be going anywhere any time soon.

And surprise, surprise: another MIT linguistic crackpot. I love that he didn't even consider Latin or Greek (or the influence of Chinese on other Asian languages, for that matter). Nothing like creating a nice convenience sample to cook your data in.

[northway]