Chinese is one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations. It is spoken by 1.3 billion people, and in IT and business it is no less in demand than English. So will Chinese ever supplant English?
More than 1.5 billion people speak English, and most countries in the world recommend it as a language for learning a foreign language. But English may lose its primacy if there are radical changes in society, in which learning Chinese will bring great benefits.
However, at the moment, there are no significant reasons to quit learning English and start Chinese:
- The Chinese language has many native speakers, but most of them are residents of China (okay, Asia), Chinese is much less likely to be taught as a foreign language
- English is the international language used by global networks, news agencies, aviation and business
- Chinese is one of the most difficult languages on the planet. It has up to hundreds of thousands of characters, which makes it very difficult for Chinese to become international.
- English is more suitable for communication and reflects a more universal European culture.
