Will20

すごい。面白い。ありがとう！

I've noticed this kind confidence/arrogance with English speakers abroad that really, they should be able to find English services everywhere. I do not find that kind of expectation with Chinese speakers. The way people view languages is not necessarily based on sheer population. English has prestige, and is perceived as an international language. Even if China grows even more economically succesful, who's to say that that will lead to them demanding everyone speak their language? The Dutch, when economically succesful, didn't do that. The Sumerians didn't either. China has already invested so much capital in language learning institutions that I wonder at how easy it would be to counter that kind of intertia.

I think this partly depends on where you're living. Not living in China, Malaysia, or Taiwan and have no real interest in doing so? Then despite its billions of speakers, Mandarin is not all that useful. For me, an American interested in East Asia, the top five would be 1. English 2. Japanese 3. Mandarin 4. Korean 5. Spanish For someone interested in sheer numbers of people that they could communicate with, and for travelling ability, 1. English 2. Mandarin 3. French 4. Standard Arabic 5. Spanish