Chinese Should Be the Official Language of the World

[Beijingwalker]

Dominant global languages change over time, English only became dominant a couple of centuries ago, and global dominant languages don't have to be just one. In East Asia and South East Asia, for the countries that have been long under the Chinese cultural and linguistic influence for millenniums, Chinese could become dominant language like it always did.

 

[Beijingwalker]

The world has moved onto using an alphabet, look at Korean.

That's because China as the pillar of East Asia delined and lost its prowess and western powers became the dominant force in East Asia. Now there is a strong voice in both Korea and Vietnam calling for the return of Chinese written language, it's a huge embarrassment for both countries that people now can not understand their historic annals, documents and literature which were all written in Chinese.

Gathering in South Korea demanding the return of Chinese language education.

All old buildings in Vietam still have Chinese characters all over them

 

[Ali_Baba]

That's their choice. Chinese will stick to their choice and tradition.

Absolutely agree and I did not suggest that they should not. My comment is only that Chinese cannot "become a official language of the world" as any language that does not have an alphabet cannot really qualify for that right.

Not everyone has to use like Latin alphabets.

It makes learning languages alot easier if an alphabets exists.

Current Korean writing has its problems. I am not advocating Chinese to be a global language. No language needs to be the global language indeed. I just thought the video is interesting so posted it.

Thanks for the video - very interesting, but I was simply pointing out a logical contradiction, that is all.

 

[Ali_Baba]

That's because China as the pillar of East Asia delined and lost its prowess and western powers became the dominant force in East Asia. Now there is a strong voice in both Korea and Vietnam calling for the return of Chinese written language, it's a huge embarrassment for both countries that people now can not understand their historic annals, documents and literature which were all written in Chinese.

Gathering in South Korea demanding the return of Chinese language education.

All old buildings in Vietam still have Chinese characters all over them

Yes - China by value of its size and history will have a significant impact on the neighbouring countries, I agree. But, I am simply saying a language that does not have an alphabet cannot become "an official language of the world" as the title and video suggest.

 

[Beijingwalker]

Yes - China by value of its size and history will have a significant impact on the neighbouring countries, I agree. But, I am simply saying a language that does not have an alphabet cannot become "an official language of the world" as the title and video suggest.

I don't think the world follows this "rule". All languages may have their chance during certain part of human history, depending on various factors.

 

[Ali_Baba]

I don't think the world follows this "rule". All languages may have their chance during certain part of human history, depending on various factors.

I am not sure what your point is?

Yes, within China it is spoken a lot, and some neighbouring countries the language has influence, but having a large Chinese speaking population does not make it a "global language". It makes it a Chinese language for Chinese speakers. Even in China, you have Mandarin and Cantonese, so your statistics obfuscate that distinction. How many other language groups are there in China?

The global language is English and its use as a global language will increase over time, as more countries can speak or use it than any other language. It is not a statement of how many people in "one country" speak the language", but how many countries speak/use the language which makes it a global language.

The title of this thread is "Chinese should be the official language of the world", and I am stating that cannot be the case as the number of countries who speak or use Chinese is very small.

 

[Beijingwalker]

I am not sure what your point is?

Yes, within China it is spoken a lot, and some neighbouring countries the language has influence, but having a large Chinese speaking population does not make it a "global language". It makes it a Chinese language for Chinese speakers. Even in China, you have Mandarin and Cantonese, so your statistics obfuscate that distinction. How many other language groups are there in China?

The global language is English and its use as a global language will increase over time, as more countries can speak or use it than any other language. It is not a statement of how many people in "one country" speak the language", but how many countries speak/use the language which makes it a global language.

The title of this thread is "Chinese should be the official language of the world", and I am stating that cannot be the case as the number of countries who speak or use Chinese is very small.

I said there's no set rule for global dominant languages and those which were also change over time in the human history. I also believe global dominant languages don't have to be just one, each region can have their own ones.
Global languages change over time depending on factors such as trade and economic prowess, military conquering, colonization, spread of religions... being alphabetic one or not was never a determinant.

 

[peacemaker99]

I also think chinese shojld be official language of world.

 

[Viet]

Absolutely agree and I did not suggest that they should not. My comment is only that Chinese cannot "become a official language of the world" as any language that does not have an alphabet cannot really qualify for that right.



It makes learning languages alot easier if an alphabets exists.



Thanks for the video - very interesting, but I was simply pointing out a logical contradiction, that is all.

Not for mass adoption, for few cases yes. Chinese script and spoken language is for Vietnam, Japan and Korea. only those 3 countries. It makes no sense to learn or speak for the rest of the world. English is lingua Franca.

 

[Desert]

I'd learn Chinese instead of German , I hated learning German in college , das die der dem den ein einen einer eins einem etc millions definite and indefinite artciles.

However , English and Spanish are much easier so they need to remain the global languages.

 

[Vikramaditya1]

If you plan on travelling around the world English is better. Like you go to say Azerbaijan and then say hello he/she will most likely say hello back. Instead if you say "ni hao" they'll look at you weird.

 

[Beijingwalker]

Technically, it already is