Baburra

I grew up within a traditional Chinese family and was sent to a Chinese school so very early on I was learning pronunciations for both Mandarin and English simultaneously, that on top of my native language. It was so early that I don't even remember the first day I started learning, exactly, but if I had to guess, I started learning at around age 4. I'd say it's a good age to learn since I don't recall having much difficulty at all at the time.

I've always imagined what it would be like if the world just suddenly shifted to another universal language, for one reason or another. I always just imagined the successor to be Mandarin (Chinese). I don't really have any particular reason as to why my mind drifts to this conclusion when asked this question, but probably because the country itself has been gaining ground significantly in the last decade or so. That said, as a personal preference, I wouldn't really choose it as a universal language, personally, even if I do speak it somewhat coherently at this point. If I had the power to choose, I'd probably pick Japanese, just because I think it could be more easily picked up by everyone and their tone of speaking is a little more pleasing to the ear than Chinese, in my opinion. So which language would you pick, if your were to replace English as the Universal Language, and why?

Yeah, I think I'd prefer to have Japanese as a native language, because I find it very whimsical and even if it's not the most "sexy" language like French, I admire it equally for its other qualities. Specifically, I find it very interesting that they have a different set of words and sentence structure used for when talking to an elder. Also, I've always found their particular set of suffixes such as "kun" and "chan" extremely adorable.

I've thought about this a few times, specially when I was younger and had a bit more of an inquisitive nature. I've never been able to fully imagine a world without language, though, as I see it as an automatic second step from raw communication. To me, as long as man has the need to communicate, language will always be invented. So even if all humanity were to be wiped out today, and a new human race pops up tomorrow, they will eventually arrive at their own language, and this is why I have trouble imagining a human world without language.

Yes, I think so, or at the very least some of the main ones probably do translate among all cultures, such as the ones you mentioned (shrugging, crossed arms, etc). Additionally, facial expressions like grimacing, I would assume, is recognizable as a person in pain to any culture. I guess a big part of the difference lies in the fact that some countries are just more expressive than others, but in general, I'd say we all pretty much speak the same body language.

I have, with French, just because the pronunciations are a little too far off from my native tongue (Asian), and I have heard that most French people are easily annoyed with deviating accents, pronunciations, etc. which just raises my standard way higher. I technically haven't really given up on it completely, though, and I still hope to learn it someday when or if I am able to live there for a while and finally have an excuse and more of a reason to really immerse myself into the language and culture.