Is English or Mandarin the language of the future?

[Richard ridealgh]

English has been the dominant global language for a century, but is it the language of the future? If Mandarin Chinese is to challenge English globally, then it first has to conquer its own backyard, South East Asia.

In Malaysia's southernmost city of Johor Bahru, the desire to speak good English has driven some children to make a remarkable two-hour journey to school every day.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17105569

[David Liu]

maybe english is not the language of the future,but it definitely won't be chinese..

[Richard ridealgh]

http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles/Chinese-versus-English.asp

I found this article to represent my feelings rather well. I think we are safe to say that the English language is quite safe from being toppled as the world's favorite language.

[CCF Beijing]

We all know the famous Mark Twain quote "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.".

Same for the English language. English is alive and well. Even in 2012, there are more jobs then teachers in China. If you don't believe me just sign up for seriousteachers.com and check your email.

That being said...I think it is a question that EVERY English teacher wonders about due to the rise of China. "Confucius Centers" are popping up all over the planet...yet I would agree with the Choonies that Mandarin won't be replacing English anytime soon. Learn 26 letters or 80,000 characters? Its a no-brainer.

Here is a link from infoplease.com. How many of the world's countries speak Chinese besides China? Not many.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855611.html

Wikipedia lists the percentages of native English speakers combined with those as an additional language. Here's a sample:

U.S.- 96%
India- 12%
Nigeria- 53%
UK- 98%
Phillipines- 58%
Canada- 85%
Australia- 92%

Mandarin is spreading worldwide but still has a long way to go. The sad part if you surveyed the citizens of these countries and asked them the simple question "Who is the current president of China?" no more then 20% would get it right.

[The Choonies]

The fact that so many 100s of millions of Chinese are learning English now guarantees almost the survival of Business English at least for the next 50 years. Most of us will be pushing up the daisies before English has any serious competitors and I doubt that it will ever have.

[Jack Field]

English - the international language of business.

Chinese people - the businessmen of all businessmen.

Today - China is the fastest emerging world economy.

Future - Chinese for sure. So start brushing up you lot. Quai xue xi le, ah!

[Sebastien Bossard]

I also think that English will continue to be the international language.

[Richard ridealgh]

The migration of students going abroad is going up every year, many of them looking to just improve their English. This is also a trend seen back home. More and more students are now coming here to study, whether its a gap year or the full degree. I am sure English will remain the dominant Lingua franca, but who can say in the future!

[Richard Roman]

I listened to this story on the World Service. very interesting. I can see Chinese becoming more important in Asia but not as important in other parts of the world (although still growing)