Unlikely to change in the near future. English has a lot of momentum with a lot of people around the world being proficient in it, and it’s also relatively easy to learn. I do expect that as China becomes increasingly more important partner for countries around the world, we’ll see the use of Mandarin increase. More countries are going to start offering Mandarin as an option in schools, and students will want to learn it because it will open up opportunities for them.
We might see a bifurcation between the West and the Global South here as well. I imagine countries that remain under US vassalage will continue to favor English, while the rest of the world will move on.
Many learners have trouble with English pronunciation if they come from rhotic languages or don’t know the TH sound, and it has a number of difficult constructions which you need to internalise. In parts of the global south, it might be replaced by Spandarin, which would be Spanish with Mandarin grammar
Every language has some aspects that are tricky and require memorization though. In my experience, English was easier to learn than other languages I know. I do think that the more important factor will be how useful learning the language is for people. If the global south ends up partnering more with China, which is what we see happening, then Mandarin will be the more important language there.
The pronunciation of Mandarin is hard, the grammar is easy. The pronunciation of Spanish is easy, the grammar is hard. Why not take only the easy parts from both?
We might see a bifurcation between the West and the Global South here as well.
Won’t happen, and it’d be bad if it did
Global South has 8 billion people (and rising) while the West has barely 1
literally all you have to do is nothing, and assuming 100% English proficiency and worldwide communication, the voices of the former will drown out and/or convert the voices of the latter
THE FIREWALL (of english non-fluency) IS FOR YOUR OWN PROTECTION
I’m just expecting that the west is going to become increasingly xenophobic and insular as the global south starts to become the dominant force in the world. In the long run, I completely agree, but in the short term I expect the west to act in the most reactionary way possible.
I don’t think there will be another international language, because AI translation develops rapidly.In fifteen years, we will be able to chat like in Star Trek
Unlikely to change in the near future. English has a lot of momentum with a lot of people around the world being proficient in it, and it’s also relatively easy to learn. I do expect that as China becomes increasingly more important partner for countries around the world, we’ll see the use of Mandarin increase. More countries are going to start offering Mandarin as an option in schools, and students will want to learn it because it will open up opportunities for them.
We might see a bifurcation between the West and the Global South here as well. I imagine countries that remain under US vassalage will continue to favor English, while the rest of the world will move on.
Many learners have trouble with English pronunciation if they come from rhotic languages or don’t know the TH sound, and it has a number of difficult constructions which you need to internalise. In parts of the global south, it might be replaced by Spandarin, which would be Spanish with Mandarin grammar
Every language has some aspects that are tricky and require memorization though. In my experience, English was easier to learn than other languages I know. I do think that the more important factor will be how useful learning the language is for people. If the global south ends up partnering more with China, which is what we see happening, then Mandarin will be the more important language there.
Isn’t Mandarin harder to pronounce, since it’s a tonal language?
I don’t see how this benefits Spanish or Mandarin speakers
The pronunciation of Mandarin is hard, the grammar is easy. The pronunciation of Spanish is easy, the grammar is hard. Why not take only the easy parts from both?
The rolling R in Spanish is not easy for a lot of people, for example, me, a native speaker of a Chinese language.
Because then you get a conlang that is intuitive for neither Spanish nor Mandarin speakers.
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Won’t happen, and it’d be bad if it did
Global South has 8 billion people (and rising) while the West has barely 1
literally all you have to do is nothing, and assuming 100% English proficiency and worldwide communication, the voices of the former will drown out and/or convert the voices of the latter
THE FIREWALL (of english non-fluency) IS FOR YOUR OWN PROTECTION
in other words: IMPEACH THIS
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I’m just expecting that the west is going to become increasingly xenophobic and insular as the global south starts to become the dominant force in the world. In the long run, I completely agree, but in the short term I expect the west to act in the most reactionary way possible.
I don’t think there will be another international language, because AI translation develops rapidly.In fifteen years, we will be able to chat like in Star Trek
Yeah, language translation is getting to the point where we might not need to have a standard international language at all.