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Popularity of Chinese language. | ||
Tags: Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7023 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 4 of 23 06 June 2009 at 6:40pm | IP Logged | ||
If you click on the languages button above and look at the statistics based on native English speakers it might give you a rough idea of numbers. Here in the US many choose Spanish because it is perceived as easy, there are many Spanish speakers in the US, and because often it is the only language offered in high school. I suspect many British English speakers select Spanish or Italian for the opportunity to go to Spain or Italy for vacation, but I am not certain about that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 吕明扬 Newbie United States Joined 6058 days ago 30 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 23 07 June 2009 at 9:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Mostly Spanish and Italian are more important for them, then Mandarin would be. For instance if they have family and friends that speak those languages.
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| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5679 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 7 of 23 07 June 2009 at 11:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I can't provide you with a percentage, but I can tell you that the number of Mandarin speakers in America and Canada is fairly low. Those who do speak Mandarin are more often then not heritage speakers.
In the case of America, I would assume a number of factors contribute to Mandarin's unpopularity. Firstly, the language is considered to be difficult. Secondly, most young people are not given the opportunity to study it. Thirdly, it is not relevant to their lives; whereas Spanish is everywhere, Mandarin is not. Fourthly, there are not many people to practice with (correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere that most Chinese-Americans speak Cantonese). Lastly, being fluent English speakers, most Americans are content with just speaking English. Edited by Paskwc on 07 June 2009 at 11:19am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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