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| ▲ | stickfigure 20 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > That is a wild claim It is not. The vast majority of English speakers do not live in the US or the UK. English is the most widely spoken language in the world. If you are at dinner with people from several countries, the "Lingua Franca" will almost certainly be English. The popularity of Mandarin relies on the sheer mass of native speakers in China. That population is shrinking and that shrinking is expected to accelerate. The cultural export of China is inherently limited by its ideology - there's a reason we have (had, really) "Hong Kong Cinema" not "Peking Cinema". | |
| ▲ | umanwizard 21 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Which part? | | |
| ▲ | jfaat 21 hours ago | parent [-] | | "When a Japanese and a Chinese person negotiate they are already using English" | | |
| ▲ | umanwizard 20 hours ago | parent [-] | | What language do you think they use? All Japanese people learn English at school; few learn Chinese as you can verify by reading about the Japanese school system from various sources including Wikipedia. Similarly in China, English is the only mandatory foreign language taught at school. | | |
| ▲ | jfaat 19 hours ago | parent [-] | | > What language do you think they use? Frequently, Chinese or Japanese. For example companies in these countries employ translators. Are you suggesting they rely on primary school-level English to negotiate? | | |
| ▲ | const_cast 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Other countries have competent language programs, the US is pretty unique in having unbelievably shit education in foreign languages. That is to say, I would not be surprised if, in China, people are quiet fluent in English. | |
| ▲ | umanwizard 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Who says they only study it in primary school? | | |
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