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A comparison of the global status of English and Chinese: towards a new global language?

Will Chinese really replace English as the world's lingua franca?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2011

Jeffrey Gil
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Extract

China's rapid development and growing engagement with the rest of the world have prompted much discussion and debate about the Chinese language, especially its prospects for becoming a global language. A report in China Daily (2004), for example, suggests that:

there may even come a day when learning Chinese, like present day English, becomes compulsory for business, politics and cultural exchanges – a trend that has become increasingly plausible as more foreign students enrol in Chinese courses and China as a nation takes a more prominent role on the international stage.

Type
Original Article
Information
English Today , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 52 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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