The Importance Of English As The Global Language

It makes sense; in order to communicate with one another society should study the world’s most spoken language. Most people in the West would agree, comfortable knowing that English is an easy language to learn; it is engraved in western culture. However, there will be a disparate reaction once given the truth that Mandarin is actually the most spoken language as well as the one of the most difficult languages to learn. The use of Chinese continues to grow and the question arises whether or not Chinese will replace English as the global language.

One would think that English is the most spoken language; it dominates western culture through immersion in the media, textbooks, airports, but what most people do not understand is that the use of

However, whether this will translate to linguistic dominance is yet to be recognized. Many people argue that neither political, cultural, technological or economic will be able to give Chinese international prominence.

Because the British Empire’s huge influence on the colonies, English has spread drastically. And as a result of World War II, the US plays an essential part in the market worldwide, causing English to be increasingly influential in global affairs. China has been developing as a country, causing Chinese to become more prominent globally and thus, causing more people to start learning Chinese. However, it is quite uncertain if Chinese will ever fully be used universally as English is, or even replace as the global language.

Following this reasoning, Andrés Martinez of Time and author of the article entitled “Why Mandarin Won’t Be a Lingua Franca” argues that Chinese will not surpass English as a lingua franca and poses no threat to the English

Movies, music, television, social media and even ideas are amongst the many factors that incorporate English in most people’s everyday lives.

As well as leading the world in popular culture, English is much easier to learn due to its simple pronunciation and grammar. The complexity of Chinese including the pronunciation and intonation turns many people off to learning the language. For most, it is the Chinese characters that are the hardest to grasp and the main cause of foreign learners’ suffering.

Predominantly in European languages, they are based solely on alphabets which is a dramatic difference from characters in Chinese. The US Foreign Service Institute has estimated that it would take a native English speaker an average of 2,200 hours to reach fluency in Chinese. This amount of learning is four times longer than it would be to learn to the same level in Dutch, Spanish, or French.

Having said this, the Chinese language is increasingly being used for business in East Asia. China’s growth has ultimately reduced poverty, and because China holds 20% of the world’s population, they become bigger consumers. Increasing number of companies are trying to sell to this market since it is the largest in the