Korean Job Discussion Forums

[methdxman]

I don't know if Mandarin is going to become the lingua franca. It will probably be useful, but I can see China becoming like India in terms of English.

I think the next big language is and will be Spanish.

20 Latin American countries (including Brazil) and Latin America is continuing to experience big economic growth. Add in the fact that they have high birthrates and that the language is easier to learn than Mandarin for an English or Romance language speaker...

[chellovek]

I concur with the view that English isn't doomed as a global language relative to Chinese mainly due to the geographical spread of the language and due to the quantity of commerce and academic research conducted in English. Latin was the language of scholarship in Europe for 1000+ years after the fall of the Roman Empire, languages that have become widespread and entrenched don't just disappear so quickly even when the politcal/economic/cultural/military power that was their main backer disappears. Also the view of treating it as a zero-sum game between either English or Chinese as a global language is mistaken. The Anglophone world has taken a fall recently for sure but the Anglosphere is still wealthy and powerful relative to the rest of the world and will continue to be so for our lifetime, even though that posititon is steadily being eroded. Surely what will happen in the coming years is that people will learn Chinese in addition to English, not instead of English.

[chellovek]

[methdxman]

[chellovek]

[methdxman]

[enchoo]

Think of the EU as like a huge economic power. What language would they pick? They are already using English as their primary second language. Add United States and Canada.

Grammatically English has too many exceptions to basic rules but many people around the world just accept this fact as their challenge or simply not focus on this and focus on speaking and content in creative writing. Many languages are phoenetically most accurately and grammatically more consistent and English is close to the bottom in both categories but I am sure English will be the SL for a long time to come.

[NohopeSeriously]

Vulgar Latin had originated from a tiny region that later became multiple languages in the Romance language family.

English will still be the international language. World Englishes will present so many variants with varied grammatical and lexical differences that there would possibly need an artificial Koine variant to harmonize these future Englishes. Kinda like Ancient Greek.

[some waygug-in]

What's funny about this idea is that not all Chinese speak Mandarin,

I think there are at least 5 languages in use in modern China, and Mandarin is a 2nd language to many.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_China

[brento1138]

Go to any airport in the world and English is always the second language everywhere in the airport. Do you really think one day they'll say "OK, let's take down all those signs and replace them with some other language."

Nah. English is here to stay, not because of the primary speakers, but because it is the established world language and will be here for a long time to come.

[Slowmotion]

[nathanrutledge]

Chinese definitely won't be making any serious inroads until they can develop a easy writing system. Pinyin isn't a particularly decent system. Grammar-wise, the word order in Chinese is similar to English, hence the ability of the Chinese to speak English better than Korean speakers (in general) - this doesn't indicate that the Chinese have a better opportunity to take over as lingua franca. Chinese is still a difficult language for Westerners - the words are totally unrelated to the Latin/Greek/Germanic roots that European languages share, the tonal structure is totally foreign, and they have no native alphabet. English may fall out of favor, sure, but it won't be because of the rise of Chinese. Also, the idea that the US is going to fall in power is ludicrous. Economically speaking, the US economy is still number 1, about 10 trillion dollars ahead of Japan/China (the number 2 economy, depending on the quarter).

Finally, if you think knowing Spanish will let you learn Portuguese in a few months time... HAHAHA! My friend married a guy from Brazil. She had many years of Spanish in the US - speaks it quite well. She still studies Portuguese three years on. The structures are similar, but the grammar and words are very unique. Sure, the Brazilian knows Spanish, but that's more due to the fact that his family is a stones throw away from Argentina, not because he's Brazilian.

[bobbybigfoot]

^^^I agree. Portuguese and Spanish are not "3 months of study away" from being identical.

[nate1983]

[RMNC]

B-b-b-but Tanzania!! And SRI LANKA!!