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Is Chinese going to be the lingua franca? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| kikewhite Diglot Newbie Venezuela Joined 5531 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 65 of 249 22 October 2009 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree with the people that state that Mandarin is going to be a new lingua franca, I mean as doviende said, it is the economic and geopolitical conditions that make a language a lingua franca. China is just going to be a super power. But back to the point. Take for example french. At the end of the XVIII century the scholars theorized that french was tha lingua franca of Europe because it was easy to use and learn. Wrong. French was the dominant language because of France´s dominance, period. And some scholars in that era even theorized that English would never become a lingua franca because it is too difficult to learn. Anything sound familiar? Altough it will take time for Mandarin to get to lingua franca position
Now about English. I think that it will never lose it´s dominance. A part from the US that already is the world´s economic power house, a country so large as India uses it, so I doubt it will lose status. It will just be in par with Mandarin. Also people say that the West is in decline. I think otherwise. The West will just have to sare the world with more people from now on. In reference to Spanish, yeah it will keep growing but nowhere near Mandarin. Yes Latinamerica is growing but it does not have Asia´s population, and is not developing as rapidly as people think. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5925 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 66 of 249 22 October 2009 at 7:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
Edited by mick33 on 22 October 2009 at 10:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| janababe Triglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 5515 days ago 102 posts - 115 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, German | Message 67 of 249 22 October 2009 at 10:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for that mick33. Yep, I've seen plenty of that - bad spelling in Britain and the US. Doesn't bother me at all, if I can understand it that's alright by me. Who says what's right and wrong anyways, some group of old guys who want to preserve the world of their youth ;) With computer spell-checkers and modern technology you learn what you need to learn and that isn't like 50 years ago. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 68 of 249 22 October 2009 at 11:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe, but I can't help thinking that the teaching of tones as something "new" or just different is partly to blame. As I've already said, we've got tones (of voice) in English -- most of Europe, in fact. The relationship between tone and and grammar has even been assumed in our grammatical terminology since Roman times: varying the pitch of your voice is known as inflection, which is also the umbrella term for declensions, conjugations and other word changes. The role of tone in grammar has been ignored largely because of the focus on the written word, but if we want to make Chinese easy for people, we've got to make them aware of the pitch-handling faculties they already have. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5925 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 69 of 249 23 October 2009 at 12:03am | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't know about Chinese tones so I won't comment on them. However, since my last post here strayed off-topic, I think I should try to comment on the actual topic. I think Chinese will likely rival English for a while, maybe for a short time we could have two lingua francas. I also agree with doviende that it doesn't matter whether people think Chinese, or any language, is easy or difficult to learn. Those who believe they need to know Chinese will learn it, those who think it's useless aren't learning it now and probably won't even if it does become more dominant internationally.
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| Rikyu-san Diglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 5529 days ago 213 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: German, French | Message 70 of 249 23 October 2009 at 1:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think we should be very much aware of the subtle trap that "easy" represents. Easy credit, easy money, easy anything...
I guess that paragons of virtue will agree that a virtous life is not easy. One chooses to live a life of virtue because one wants to live a life where one strives to do good for the sake of Good itself. Easy or not. In fact, one who can be virtous even during adversity can be said to be more virtous than the one who can only be virtous when life is easy. Learning a language is related to this, even though it might seem strange to some people. But imagine you want to learn a language without at the same time wanting to use it to do good for the sake of Good itself - it would be a different journey, right? To learn to speak English or Mandarin without getting a sense of the culture, the philosophers, the societal history, both the good sides and the perhaps not so good and be able to walk in the shoes of the natives and strive to look beyond one's preconceptions of their societies (how easy it is to be blinded by one's preconceived ideas or to interpret their values, beliefs and customs through the lense of one's own ethnocentricity!) is to strive for easy and for the superfluous and will erect a self-imposed barrier to really learn the language and to get to know the people who speak it. Can one really speak and understand Mandarin without understanding the influence of Confucianism and Daoism on Chinese culture? Maybe. But think about the Chinese communities living abroad who are renowned for their communinality and integrity. This communality, I am told, is rooted in Confucian thought, for example the understanding of social and societal relations and structures through the lense of the family. Is that useful to know? I would say so. And if that is useful we have moved beyond simply learning the language as a parrot - we have moved towards something deeper. That road is not easy - but it will be immensely rewarding. The greatest barrier is not whether or not a language is easy or hard. The greatest barrier is whether or not we can do what has to be done, easy or not. Edited by Rikyu-san on 23 October 2009 at 1:08am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6943 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 71 of 249 23 October 2009 at 4:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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If I may throw my two-bob in.
I find it hard to believe that Mandarin will replace English as the lingua franca, it just has so little influence beyond its borders. Some people point to Latin as an example that even languages backed up by world superpowers can fall, but English isn't anchored to just one entity (the Roman Empire), it is anchored to many (the USA, the UK, and the rest of the anglophone world), and if any one of them falls, it's not necessarily the "end" for the language's lingua franca status. To be honest, if any language is going to replace English in the forseeable future, I believe Spanish is in the best position to do so. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| knadolny Diglot Newbie United States capturingchinese.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5515 days ago 11 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese | Message 72 of 249 23 October 2009 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As an American, I believe learning Chinese will put you into a very unique position. I'm surprised to hear an Australian say that Chinese isn't so useful considering your prime minister speaks Mandarin and is helping your country create better business ties with China. Am I wrong?
I just applied for a new job here in Japan. Being a native English speaker was definitely an edge. Being a native speaker of the lengua franca is awesome, but letting them know I was fluent in Chinese really helped me land the job. I would recommend any American to learn Chinese over Spanish. Being a native English speaker with a Chinese background will only surely help you in the future. Chinese might take a hundred years to become a lengua franca, but as for now it's on the right path. Are we limiting this discussion to the next ten, twenty, thirty years? Then of course English will continue to be dominant. America has this same short sightedness in regards to our debt. Is it so hard to think about your grandkids or great grandkids? I sure hope they have the same opportunities I do. In any case I'll be teaching them Chinese from their infancy. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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