mandarin is spoken by 3/4 of Mainland China and has approximately 900 million speakers. It has the most speakers but is only spoken in about 5 countries....
Every student in china has to take english and cannot progress to the next level of school without passing an english test.... their written english is not always that bad, but spoken english is usually terrible because they don't have the same resources.
there is much more published material in english than in any other language and it is the de facto language for most international organizations.
In 40-60 years I predict that English will not only be the most widely spoken language but also have the most speakers too. not necessary fluent speakers, but intermediate speakers.
Japan is pretty similar... everyone studies English but few can speak it well. Sometimes if a foreigner here wants to be understood, they write down what they have said and immediately get their point across. Its a problem in the understanding of what language is and how best it is taught (and learned) that puts things backwards. I should also be honest and say that it is the over-emphasis on paper exams here that destroys any chance the majority of students will get anywhere with conversational English.
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Every student in china has to take english and cannot progress to the next level of school without passing an english test.... their written english is not always that bad, but spoken english is usually terrible because they don't have the same resources.
there is much more published material in english than in any other language and it is the de facto language for most international organizations.
In 40-60 years I predict that English will not only be the most widely spoken language but also have the most speakers too. not necessary fluent speakers, but intermediate speakers.