BBC: Will Mandarin change the status of English as a global language?
The BBC reports that in just 5 years, the number of non-Chinese learning Mandarin has soared to 30 million and wonders aloud whether it will effect the position of English as the Global Language.While we know this isn't likely to happen in the next year or two, it should still be good fodder for local chinese educationists to continue their lonely struggle for vernacular schools and may throw a spanner into the works of kris-waving Education Minister Hishammudin Hussein Onn in his search for a cohesive national education agenda.
It should also give some meaning to MCA's continued existence as they seek to keep themselves relevant in a country where their demographic interest shrinks by the day.
For me, a self-confessed banana (yellow on the outside but white on the inside) who is at best fluent in reading chinese menus, this sort of news does make me think ever more seriously about sending my two young sons to chinese schools when the time comes.
As the BBC report says:
"A thousand years ago, people would have said it would be absurd that Latin would not be spoken in 1,000 years' time. But we know that has happened. It can only take 100 years or so for the language balance of power to shift.
Zai Jian.
posted by hew @ 1:29 am
1 Comments:
yeah. i am banana too but i learning to speak better, and refresh my reading and writing :D
i think it's important that the chinese language is taught at national schools was it will make us more competitive
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