你认为普通话会成为一门全球性的语言吗?成为旅行时的通用语，全世界的人都必须在学校学习的那种
Do you think Mandarin will be a global language in the way that it will be used as a lingua franca when traveling and people all round the world will be learning it in school as a necessity?
译文简介
不太可能，况且你还挑了个最难以挑战的例子。我遗憾地告诉你，如果我们以人口规模为标准，那就是印度vs中国。或者我们以全球霸权为标准，抑或是说我们以全球的基础设施和势头为标准，你自己选。无论你选择哪一种，英语都是赢家。
正文翻译
Do you think Mandarin will be a global language in the way that it will be used as a lingua franca when traveling and people all round the world will be learning it in school as a necessity?
你认为普通话会成为一门全球性的语言吗?成为旅行时的通用语，全世界的人都必须在学校学习的那种
评论翻译
Luis M. Gonzalez
I work in imports and exports dealing with China. Often, I receive emails forwarded to me by Chinese suppliers where I can see discussions between them and Chinese freight forwarders. The messages are mostly in English.
I asked them why, and they said because English is the language of international trade.
However, when I exchange emails with local agents, we do it in Spanish. It doesn't make much sense. I guess that, perhaps, Mandarin is the official language but it's still a “lingua franca” for them. They still have up to 33 unintelligible regional languages. And since the communications are littered with English technical terms, using English is the logical thing to do.
Or perhaps there's some elitist reason. I don't know.
我做进出口业务，与中国打交道。我经常收到中国供应商转发给我的邮件，我可以看到他们和中国货运代理之间的讨论。这些信息大多是用英语写的。
我问他们为什么，他们说因为英语是国际贸易的语言。
我想，也许，普通话是官方语言，但对他们来说，它仍然是一种“通用语”。他们还有多达33种难以理解的方言。由于交流中充斥着英语技术术语，使用英语是合乎逻辑的事情。或者可能是出于某些精英主义的原因，我不知道。
I work in imports and exports dealing with China. Often, I receive emails forwarded to me by Chinese suppliers where I can see discussions between them and Chinese freight forwarders. The messages are mostly in English.
I asked them why, and they said because English is the language of international trade.
However, when I exchange emails with local agents, we do it in Spanish. It doesn't make much sense. I guess that, perhaps, Mandarin is the official language but it's still a “lingua franca” for them. They still have up to 33 unintelligible regional languages. And since the communications are littered with English technical terms, using English is the logical thing to do.
Or perhaps there's some elitist reason. I don't know.
我做进出口业务，与中国打交道。我经常收到中国供应商转发给我的邮件，我可以看到他们和中国货运代理之间的讨论。这些信息大多是用英语写的。
我问他们为什么，他们说因为英语是国际贸易的语言。
我想，也许，普通话是官方语言，但对他们来说，它仍然是一种“通用语”。他们还有多达33种难以理解的方言。由于交流中充斥着英语技术术语，使用英语是合乎逻辑的事情。或者可能是出于某些精英主义的原因，我不知道。
Chow Po Sun
English proficiency is pretty much a “symbol” of higher education levels (which was particularly true when China, or Asian places in general, was less advanced and less rich then they were).
On a practical level, it also means you are more “in line with national standards” in some way and could work better in an international environment when you have to engage with external agents/customers.
英语水平基本上是高等教育水平的一个“标志”，尤其是当中国或者亚洲其他地方，还比较落后和不富裕的时候。
在实践层面上，这也意味着你在某种程度上更“符合国家标准”，当你必须与外部代理/客户打交道时，你可以在国际环境中更好地工作。
English proficiency is pretty much a “symbol” of higher education levels (which was particularly true when China, or Asian places in general, was less advanced and less rich then they were).
On a practical level, it also means you are more “in line with national standards” in some way and could work better in an international environment when you have to engage with external agents/customers.
英语水平基本上是高等教育水平的一个“标志”，尤其是当中国或者亚洲其他地方，还比较落后和不富裕的时候。
在实践层面上，这也意味着你在某种程度上更“符合国家标准”，当你必须与外部代理/客户打交道时，你可以在国际环境中更好地工作。
Henry Smith
English is the universal language of Aviation.
…Theoretically. I flew in Japan and some other countries. The big international airports like Haneda spoke it better than most Americans. Some of the smaller airports though…
英语是航空的通用语言....。
我乘航班去过日本和其他一些国家，像羽田机场这样的大型国际机场说得比大多数美国人都好。不过，一些较小的机场就……
English is the universal language of Aviation.
…Theoretically. I flew in Japan and some other countries. The big international airports like Haneda spoke it better than most Americans. Some of the smaller airports though…
英语是航空的通用语言....。
我乘航班去过日本和其他一些国家，像羽田机场这样的大型国际机场说得比大多数美国人都好。不过，一些较小的机场就……
Mac Holden
One point you and the comments I have read all missed is that there are a number of major problems involved in adopting Mandarin worldwide.
Firstly, the tonal aspects of the language. Outside of east Asia, using tones to qualify syllables is unusual and is very difficult to learn.
Then, there is the need to express yourself in writing. Being literate in Mandarin is not easy, I have spent years learning (and forgetting) the many thousands of characters needed to just read a newspaper. I accept that English spelling is not easy either but at least it is based on a fairly simple alphabet.
So I suspect it will be difficult for any Chinese language to become a lingua franca.
楼主和我读到的评论都忽略了一点，那就是在世界范围内采用普通话存在许多主要问题。
首先是语言的声调方面。在东亚以外的地区，用声调来修饰音节是很少见的，而且非常难学。
其次，你需要用文字来表达自己。能读懂中文并不容易，我花了好几年的时间学习(也忘记了)读一份报纸所需要的好几千个汉字。
我承认英语的拼写也不容易，但至少它是基于一个相当简单的字母表。因此，我认为任何一种汉语都很难成为通用语。
One point you and the comments I have read all missed is that there are a number of major problems involved in adopting Mandarin worldwide.
Firstly, the tonal aspects of the language. Outside of east Asia, using tones to qualify syllables is unusual and is very difficult to learn.
Then, there is the need to express yourself in writing. Being literate in Mandarin is not easy, I have spent years learning (and forgetting) the many thousands of characters needed to just read a newspaper. I accept that English spelling is not easy either but at least it is based on a fairly simple alphabet.
So I suspect it will be difficult for any Chinese language to become a lingua franca.
楼主和我读到的评论都忽略了一点，那就是在世界范围内采用普通话存在许多主要问题。
首先是语言的声调方面。在东亚以外的地区，用声调来修饰音节是很少见的，而且非常难学。
其次，你需要用文字来表达自己。能读懂中文并不容易，我花了好几年的时间学习(也忘记了)读一份报纸所需要的好几千个汉字。
我承认英语的拼写也不容易，但至少它是基于一个相当简单的字母表。因此，我认为任何一种汉语都很难成为通用语。
Chow Po Sun
Chinese characters aren’t actually really that difficult once you get the hang of it. Besides, if Chinese and other members of the Asian countries can understand an European language (primarily English) and pronounce it no problem, the opposite is true as well especially for children who can pick up languages fairly quickly. This is why education for children is particularly important.
The Chinese language also is very simple in terms of tenses and doesn’t have any of that messy tenses and/or plural forms either, nor it has gender terms for each noun unlike say German. The language has its messier parts but otherwise it is super simple especially in comparison to English.
一旦你掌握了汉字，它实际上并不是真的那么难。此外，如果中国和其他亚洲国家的成员能听懂一种欧洲语言(主要是英语)并能发音，也没有问题，尤其对那些能很快学会语言的孩子来说。
这就是为什么儿童教育特别重要。
汉语在时态方面也很简单，没有任何乱七八糟的时态或复数形式，也不像德语，每个名词都有性别术语。汉语有它更复杂的部分，但与英语相比，它超级简单。
Chinese characters aren’t actually really that difficult once you get the hang of it. Besides, if Chinese and other members of the Asian countries can understand an European language (primarily English) and pronounce it no problem, the opposite is true as well especially for children who can pick up languages fairly quickly. This is why education for children is particularly important.
The Chinese language also is very simple in terms of tenses and doesn’t have any of that messy tenses and/or plural forms either, nor it has gender terms for each noun unlike say German. The language has its messier parts but otherwise it is super simple especially in comparison to English.
一旦你掌握了汉字，它实际上并不是真的那么难。此外，如果中国和其他亚洲国家的成员能听懂一种欧洲语言(主要是英语)并能发音，也没有问题，尤其对那些能很快学会语言的孩子来说。
这就是为什么儿童教育特别重要。
汉语在时态方面也很简单，没有任何乱七八糟的时态或复数形式，也不像德语，每个名词都有性别术语。汉语有它更复杂的部分，但与英语相比，它超级简单。
Mac Holden
You are absolutely correct about Mandarin grammar. Po Sun, it is relatively simple. You are also correct about children. I remember travelling in the Caucusus region where they have languages so complex that only a lunatic would even consider creating grammatical rules that form the basis of those tongues. And yet, young children speak then fluently.
Regarding Chinese characters, I'm not sure that I agree that it is so easy. Yes there is a logic to them and it is wonderful to see the magic used by the specialists to create characters for new words or concepts. But I guess there is a clue there in the last statement. You need a committee to create new characters. When there are thousands and thousands of those characters. It is not at all am easy learning process for those not brought up with this as a mother tongue.
关于普通话的语法，你说得非常正确，它比较简单。
你对孩子的看法也是正确的。我记得在高加索地区旅行时，那里的语言非常复杂，只有疯子才会考虑创造语法规则，形成这些语言的基础。然而，当地孩子们说话很流利。
至于汉字，我不确定我是否同意它很容易。是的，它们是有逻辑的，看到专家们魔法一般地创造新字或新词是很美妙的。
但是我想你最后一个表述中的问题在于，你需要一个委员会来创制新的汉字，如此一来，就会有成千上万的汉字字符。对于那些不是在母语环境下长大的人来说，这不是一个容易的学习过程。
You are absolutely correct about Mandarin grammar. Po Sun, it is relatively simple. You are also correct about children. I remember travelling in the Caucusus region where they have languages so complex that only a lunatic would even consider creating grammatical rules that form the basis of those tongues. And yet, young children speak then fluently.
Regarding Chinese characters, I'm not sure that I agree that it is so easy. Yes there is a logic to them and it is wonderful to see the magic used by the specialists to create characters for new words or concepts. But I guess there is a clue there in the last statement. You need a committee to create new characters. When there are thousands and thousands of those characters. It is not at all am easy learning process for those not brought up with this as a mother tongue.
关于普通话的语法，你说得非常正确，它比较简单。
你对孩子的看法也是正确的。我记得在高加索地区旅行时，那里的语言非常复杂，只有疯子才会考虑创造语法规则，形成这些语言的基础。然而，当地孩子们说话很流利。
至于汉字，我不确定我是否同意它很容易。是的，它们是有逻辑的，看到专家们魔法一般地创造新字或新词是很美妙的。
但是我想你最后一个表述中的问题在于，你需要一个委员会来创制新的汉字，如此一来，就会有成千上万的汉字字符。对于那些不是在母语环境下长大的人来说，这不是一个容易的学习过程。
Chow Po Sun
The same goes for English and German as well, as a person whose mother tongue being neither of them (God why is German so incredibly complicated). They’ll tell you there are only 26 alphabets in English, but that is incredibly misleading considering English contains a hell ton of individual letters, of which containing many lookalikes that represent entirely different things (though, thought, through) with a total number of vocabularies that probably isn’t so different from that of Chinese characters after all.
Modern Chinese new words, somewhat like German, has phrases/word pairs formed by putting words that form similar meanings when read together to present foreign items or concepts (ie. 計算機/電腦, literally “calculation machine” or “electrical brain” for computers, 智能電話 literally smart phone etc), and sometimes transliteration with words that has similar pronunciations if it’s a name of a specific person/entity (ie. 特朗普/川普 Trump). We don’t literally create new individual letters to represent new things or new concepts, and the context/meaning of newly formed wordings can be somewhat deduced from the letters used to construct them fairly easily provided you have put in efforts to understand and memorize the more commonly used letters, just like learning literally any other European languages. There are lots of individual characters in Chinese but only a small portion of them are commonly used not unlike common English.
同样的道理也适用于英语和德语，作为一个母语不是这两种语言的人(天哪，为什么德语这么复杂)。
他们会告诉你英语中只有26个字母，但这是非常令人难以置信的误导，因为考虑到英语包含了大量的独特词汇，其中包含许多相似的字符，却代表完全不同的事物(尽管（though），思考（thought），通过（through）)，其词汇的总数可能与汉语词汇并没有太大的不同。
现代汉语的新词有点像德语，是把意义相近的词放在一起读来表达外来词或某个概念。
我们并不为新事物或新概念创制一个全新的汉字，相反这个新事物/新意义可以相当容易地从其所构成的部件来推导其含义。你只需要努力去理解和记忆那些大众经常使用的汉字就够了，这跟学习任何其他欧洲语言是一样的。
汉语里的汉字很多，但只有很少一部分有被经常使用，这点跟英语常用词是不一样的。
The same goes for English and German as well, as a person whose mother tongue being neither of them (God why is German so incredibly complicated). They’ll tell you there are only 26 alphabets in English, but that is incredibly misleading considering English contains a hell ton of individual letters, of which containing many lookalikes that represent entirely different things (though, thought, through) with a total number of vocabularies that probably isn’t so different from that of Chinese characters after all.
Modern Chinese new words, somewhat like German, has phrases/word pairs formed by putting words that form similar meanings when read together to present foreign items or concepts (ie. 計算機/電腦, literally “calculation machine” or “electrical brain” for computers, 智能電話 literally smart phone etc), and sometimes transliteration with words that has similar pronunciations if it’s a name of a specific person/entity (ie. 特朗普/川普 Trump). We don’t literally create new individual letters to represent new things or new concepts, and the context/meaning of newly formed wordings can be somewhat deduced from the letters used to construct them fairly easily provided you have put in efforts to understand and memorize the more commonly used letters, just like learning literally any other European languages. There are lots of individual characters in Chinese but only a small portion of them are commonly used not unlike common English.
同样的道理也适用于英语和德语，作为一个母语不是这两种语言的人(天哪，为什么德语这么复杂)。
他们会告诉你英语中只有26个字母，但这是非常令人难以置信的误导，因为考虑到英语包含了大量的独特词汇，其中包含许多相似的字符，却代表完全不同的事物(尽管（though），思考（thought），通过（through）)，其词汇的总数可能与汉语词汇并没有太大的不同。
现代汉语的新词有点像德语，是把意义相近的词放在一起读来表达外来词或某个概念。
我们并不为新事物或新概念创制一个全新的汉字，相反这个新事物/新意义可以相当容易地从其所构成的部件来推导其含义。你只需要努力去理解和记忆那些大众经常使用的汉字就够了，这跟学习任何其他欧洲语言是一样的。
汉语里的汉字很多，但只有很少一部分有被经常使用，这点跟英语常用词是不一样的。
Arun Tharuvai
Most of the Bantu languages are tonal, and half of Africa speaks them.
大多数班图语都是带声调的，有一半的非洲人说这种语言。
Most of the Bantu languages are tonal, and half of Africa speaks them.
大多数班图语都是带声调的，有一半的非洲人说这种语言。
Mac Holden
Yes, I was aware of that. I think some native American languages also use tones.
Just looking up online some of the Bantu languages, it appears Swahili does not use tones and languages like Shona use 2.
I'd be very interested to know if it is a great help in learning Mandarin.
是的，我有注意到这门语言。
我认为一些美洲土著语言也使用音调。只要在网上查一下班图语，就会发现斯瓦希里语（Swahili）并不像修纳语（Shona）那样使用音调和语言。
我很有兴趣知道它是否对学习普通话有很大帮助。
Yes, I was aware of that. I think some native American languages also use tones.
Just looking up online some of the Bantu languages, it appears Swahili does not use tones and languages like Shona use 2.
I'd be very interested to know if it is a great help in learning Mandarin.
是的，我有注意到这门语言。
我认为一些美洲土著语言也使用音调。只要在网上查一下班图语，就会发现斯瓦希里语（Swahili）并不像修纳语（Shona）那样使用音调和语言。
我很有兴趣知道它是否对学习普通话有很大帮助。
Ankit
“1.6 billion people in the Indian Subcontinent are already seven generations invested in learning English.”
Lol, not really. English penetration in India was a mere 12% acc to the 2001 census. A middle class Indian is most likely only one/two generations invested in learning English.
It also depends on which part of India one hails from - many parts, esp the 542 Princely States weren’t under direct rule of the crown. My grandparents speak/spoke English, not sure if my great-grandparents did. Even if they did, they probably learnt it like most Americans learn Spanish.
That being said, English is and will be the dominant medium of instruction in Indian institutions. We don’t have a national language.
“印度次大陆上，16亿人已经有7代人在学习英语。”
哈哈,没那回事。与2001年人口普查相比，英语在印度的普及率只有12%。印度的中产阶级很可能只有一两代人在学习英语。这也取决于一个人来自印度的哪个地区——很多地方，尤其是542个土邦并不是由国王直接统治的。我的祖父母说英语，不确定我的曾祖父母是否说英语。即使他们学过，他们也可能像大多数美国人学习西班牙语一样学习英语。
话虽如此，英语现在是，将来也将是印度教育机构的主要教学媒介。
我们没有官方语言。
“1.6 billion people in the Indian Subcontinent are already seven generations invested in learning English.”
Lol, not really. English penetration in India was a mere 12% acc to the 2001 census. A middle class Indian is most likely only one/two generations invested in learning English.
It also depends on which part of India one hails from - many parts, esp the 542 Princely States weren’t under direct rule of the crown. My grandparents speak/spoke English, not sure if my great-grandparents did. Even if they did, they probably learnt it like most Americans learn Spanish.
That being said, English is and will be the dominant medium of instruction in Indian institutions. We don’t have a national language.
“印度次大陆上，16亿人已经有7代人在学习英语。”
哈哈,没那回事。与2001年人口普查相比，英语在印度的普及率只有12%。印度的中产阶级很可能只有一两代人在学习英语。这也取决于一个人来自印度的哪个地区——很多地方，尤其是542个土邦并不是由国王直接统治的。我的祖父母说英语，不确定我的曾祖父母是否说英语。即使他们学过，他们也可能像大多数美国人学习西班牙语一样学习英语。
话虽如此，英语现在是，将来也将是印度教育机构的主要教学媒介。
我们没有官方语言。
Dan Holliday
I’m referring to the infrastructure. Think of the dozens of millions of VERY fluent English speakers and English teachers. Switching to Mandarin now means dispensing with that human and civil infrastructure and spending years and billions building a new one. And for what reasons?
我指的是基础设施。
想想那数以千万计非常流利的英语使用者和英语教师吧。
现在，改用普通话意味着要放弃那些人，并花费数年、数十亿美元来学习新的普通话。图什么呢？
I’m referring to the infrastructure. Think of the dozens of millions of VERY fluent English speakers and English teachers. Switching to Mandarin now means dispensing with that human and civil infrastructure and spending years and billions building a new one. And for what reasons?
我指的是基础设施。
想想那数以千万计非常流利的英语使用者和英语教师吧。
现在，改用普通话意味着要放弃那些人，并花费数年、数十亿美元来学习新的普通话。图什么呢？
James Harding
Not to mention, the overwhelming majority of the world speaks a language much closer to English than Chinese as a second language, even if not a first.
更不用说，世界上绝大多数人所说的母语相比于汉语，跟英语更加接近。
Not to mention, the overwhelming majority of the world speaks a language much closer to English than Chinese as a second language, even if not a first.
更不用说，世界上绝大多数人所说的母语相比于汉语，跟英语更加接近。
Aikoria Aiko
While i upvoted, it's almost false to say Britain did not uplift English. The Indian subcontinent and Half of Africa would not be speaking English today without the British Empire
尽管我给楼主的评论点了赞，但如果说英国没有促进英语水平的提升，这是错的。
如果没有大英帝国，印度次大陆和非洲的一半地区今天都不会说英语。
While i upvoted, it's almost false to say Britain did not uplift English. The Indian subcontinent and Half of Africa would not be speaking English today without the British Empire
尽管我给楼主的评论点了赞，但如果说英国没有促进英语水平的提升，这是错的。
如果没有大英帝国，印度次大陆和非洲的一半地区今天都不会说英语。
Dan Holliday
Britain didn’t set out to make English a global language. Britain —like all empires— made it the language of the empire of course (so did France or the US or Russia), but the global position? Never even tried.
英国并没有打算让英语成为一门全球语言。
英国就像所有的帝国一样——当然会使用自己帝国的语言(法国、美国或俄罗斯也是如此)，至于全球地位?从来没有尝试过。
Britain didn’t set out to make English a global language. Britain —like all empires— made it the language of the empire of course (so did France or the US or Russia), but the global position? Never even tried.
英国并没有打算让英语成为一门全球语言。
英国就像所有的帝国一样——当然会使用自己帝国的语言(法国、美国或俄罗斯也是如此)，至于全球地位?从来没有尝试过。
Aikoria Aiko
Yes , but did the world really choose? … in my opinion the only reason English is the world's dominant language is because “The USA” would go on to become the biggest economy and military force in the world and given that much the world already spoke English, it just made sense for who ever didn't to learn the the language if they wanted to mingle. I think if a Spanish colony had emerged to become what The United States is today, then Spanish would have become the global language.
说得对，但全世界有选择吗？
在我看来英语之所以是世界占统治地位的语言是因为“美国”将继续成为全球最大经济体，最大军事力量，再者在此之前，世界已经在说英语了。
我认为，如果一个西班牙殖民地变成了今天的美国，那么西班牙语也会成为全球语言。
Yes , but did the world really choose? … in my opinion the only reason English is the world's dominant language is because “The USA” would go on to become the biggest economy and military force in the world and given that much the world already spoke English, it just made sense for who ever didn't to learn the the language if they wanted to mingle. I think if a Spanish colony had emerged to become what The United States is today, then Spanish would have become the global language.
说得对，但全世界有选择吗？
在我看来英语之所以是世界占统治地位的语言是因为“美国”将继续成为全球最大经济体，最大军事力量，再者在此之前，世界已经在说英语了。
我认为，如果一个西班牙殖民地变成了今天的美国，那么西班牙语也会成为全球语言。
Dan Holliday
Is the US a factor? Duh. But it was more like “we need a single language” and “Oh, here’s a 200 year hegemony that London just handed to Washington. All of science and industry has mostly quit speaking German and French. Well then, English it is! And what luck, the most powerful country speaks it too.” But the “power” isn’t so important (the USSR had to force its client states to learn Russian but their people boastfully learned English or French when given a chance) and China (who speaks a language not many people want to learn).
美国是原因之一？哈。
这更像是“我们需要一种单一的语言”，以及“哦，这是伦敦刚刚交给华盛顿的200年霸权。”所有的科学和工业都不再讲德语和法语了。那么，就是英语啦！多幸运啊，最强大的国家也说这门语言哎。“
“实力“在这里并没那么重要，苏联不得不强迫它的附庸国学习俄语，但他们的人民在有机会的时候却骄傲地学习英语或法语。中国也是，他所使用的语言没多少人想学。
Is the US a factor? Duh. But it was more like “we need a single language” and “Oh, here’s a 200 year hegemony that London just handed to Washington. All of science and industry has mostly quit speaking German and French. Well then, English it is! And what luck, the most powerful country speaks it too.” But the “power” isn’t so important (the USSR had to force its client states to learn Russian but their people boastfully learned English or French when given a chance) and China (who speaks a language not many people want to learn).
美国是原因之一？哈。
这更像是“我们需要一种单一的语言”，以及“哦，这是伦敦刚刚交给华盛顿的200年霸权。”所有的科学和工业都不再讲德语和法语了。那么，就是英语啦！多幸运啊，最强大的国家也说这门语言哎。“
“实力“在这里并没那么重要，苏联不得不强迫它的附庸国学习俄语，但他们的人民在有机会的时候却骄傲地学习英语或法语。中国也是，他所使用的语言没多少人想学。
Aikoria Aiko
I think the US is a factor given that lots( if not the majority)of innovation and scientific publication in the 20th century happened there. If the US were a Spanish colony, most of these would have been written in Spanish. British( English ) influence would have still been there but would eventually fade to the background just like French and countries like Japan, China, many parts of Asia, half of Africa and some countries in Europe would not really be incentivized to learn the language the way they do now. Now when we get to ecomomic and social angle, things begin to take shape. Now imagine the world's biggest trader is Spanish and all of Hollywood was exported in Spanish. << i only included Hollywood because most of us only got to know about America through Hollywood, even some of my friends who speak mostly French >> Not only that, the country that get to influence and help re-build Japan and South Korea after second world war would have been Spanish. The majority of aids given to third world countries would have been coming from a Spanish country also..
As for Mandarin, i don't see a scenario where it becomes a global language. The factors that led to English becoming one just isn't there
我认为美国是一个原因，因为20世纪很多(如果不是大多数的话)的创新和科学出版物都发生在美国。如果美国是西班牙的殖民地，这些书大部分都将是用西班牙语写的。
现在，当我们从经济和社会的角度来看，事情开始有了轮廓。
现在想象一下，世界上最大的贸易商用的是西班牙语，所有的好莱坞电影也都是用的西班牙语（我之所以提到好莱坞，是因为我们大多数人都是通过好莱坞才了解美国的，甚至包括我一些主要讲法语的朋友）。不仅如此，在二战后影响并帮助重建日本和韩国的国家是西班牙。给第三世界国家带去的援助大多数也来自西班牙。
至于普通话，我不认为它会成为一门全球语言，因为导致英语成为主导语言的因素并不存在。
I think the US is a factor given that lots( if not the majority)of innovation and scientific publication in the 20th century happened there. If the US were a Spanish colony, most of these would have been written in Spanish. British( English ) influence would have still been there but would eventually fade to the background just like French and countries like Japan, China, many parts of Asia, half of Africa and some countries in Europe would not really be incentivized to learn the language the way they do now. Now when we get to ecomomic and social angle, things begin to take shape. Now imagine the world's biggest trader is Spanish and all of Hollywood was exported in Spanish. << i only included Hollywood because most of us only got to know about America through Hollywood, even some of my friends who speak mostly French >> Not only that, the country that get to influence and help re-build Japan and South Korea after second world war would have been Spanish. The majority of aids given to third world countries would have been coming from a Spanish country also..
As for Mandarin, i don't see a scenario where it becomes a global language. The factors that led to English becoming one just isn't there
我认为美国是一个原因，因为20世纪很多(如果不是大多数的话)的创新和科学出版物都发生在美国。如果美国是西班牙的殖民地，这些书大部分都将是用西班牙语写的。
现在，当我们从经济和社会的角度来看，事情开始有了轮廓。
现在想象一下，世界上最大的贸易商用的是西班牙语，所有的好莱坞电影也都是用的西班牙语（我之所以提到好莱坞，是因为我们大多数人都是通过好莱坞才了解美国的，甚至包括我一些主要讲法语的朋友）。不仅如此，在二战后影响并帮助重建日本和韩国的国家是西班牙。给第三世界国家带去的援助大多数也来自西班牙。
至于普通话，我不认为它会成为一门全球语言，因为导致英语成为主导语言的因素并不存在。
John Yang
It’s also how native speakers regard their own language. Native English speakers , eg Americans, view English as universal and expect non-native speakers to speak it. Native Mandarin speakers however view Mandarin as exclusive and when they see a non-Chinese (especially non-Asian) speak it it’s a novelty, literally worthy of a TV game show.
there’s also no two ways about it - English is 100x easier to learn.
这也是母语人士看待自己的语言的方式。以英语为母语的人，如美国人，认为英语是通用的，并希望非英语母语的人也说英语。
以普通话为母语的人认为普通话是唯一的，当他们看到一个非中国人(尤其是非亚洲人)说普通话时，会认为这很新奇并值得在电视游戏节目中观看。
再者，学习英语要比学习汉语容易100倍。
It’s also how native speakers regard their own language. Native English speakers , eg Americans, view English as universal and expect non-native speakers to speak it. Native Mandarin speakers however view Mandarin as exclusive and when they see a non-Chinese (especially non-Asian) speak it it’s a novelty, literally worthy of a TV game show.
there’s also no two ways about it - English is 100x easier to learn.
这也是母语人士看待自己的语言的方式。以英语为母语的人，如美国人，认为英语是通用的，并希望非英语母语的人也说英语。
以普通话为母语的人认为普通话是唯一的，当他们看到一个非中国人(尤其是非亚洲人)说普通话时，会认为这很新奇并值得在电视游戏节目中观看。
再者，学习英语要比学习汉语容易100倍。
Tejas Gurjar (તેજસ ગુર્જર)
It is hard to move on from one language to another. India too had similar problem around independence. India decided to use English and Hindi as official language for 15 years and then switch completely to hindi. But after 15 years non-hindi states protested against Hindi as sole official language and so we still have English and Hindi as official language and English as the medium of higher education.
从一种语言转换到另一种语言是很困难的。印度在独立期间也有类似的问题。印度决定使用英语和印地语作为官方语言已有15年，后来才完全改用的印地语。但15年后，非印地语邦国抗议印地语作为唯一官方语言，所以我们仍然使用英语和印地语作为官方语言，英语作为高等教育媒介。
It is hard to move on from one language to another. India too had similar problem around independence. India decided to use English and Hindi as official language for 15 years and then switch completely to hindi. But after 15 years non-hindi states protested against Hindi as sole official language and so we still have English and Hindi as official language and English as the medium of higher education.
从一种语言转换到另一种语言是很困难的。印度在独立期间也有类似的问题。印度决定使用英语和印地语作为官方语言已有15年，后来才完全改用的印地语。但15年后，非印地语邦国抗议印地语作为唯一官方语言，所以我们仍然使用英语和印地语作为官方语言，英语作为高等教育媒介。
Greg Kemnitz
One irony is an Indian “hegemon” may well end up being “Act 3” in the world linguistic hegemony of English, as Indians doing business outside India often use English - even with other Indians. (And frequently inside India as well…)
The only time they don’t is if they happen to be from the same part of India.
My own guess is India is the world’s biggest “English-speaking” country, if you take L2 English speakers into account…
具有讽刺意味的是，印度登上世界舞台很可能最终成为英语世界语言霸权的“第三幕剧”，因为在印度以外的地方做生意的印度人经常使用英语——甚至是和其他印度人。只有当他们碰巧来自印度同一地区的时候，他们才不会这么做。
我个人的猜测是印度是世界上最大的“英语国家”，如果你考虑到说英语的人。
One irony is an Indian “hegemon” may well end up being “Act 3” in the world linguistic hegemony of English, as Indians doing business outside India often use English - even with other Indians. (And frequently inside India as well…)
The only time they don’t is if they happen to be from the same part of India.
My own guess is India is the world’s biggest “English-speaking” country, if you take L2 English speakers into account…
具有讽刺意味的是，印度登上世界舞台很可能最终成为英语世界语言霸权的“第三幕剧”，因为在印度以外的地方做生意的印度人经常使用英语——甚至是和其他印度人。只有当他们碰巧来自印度同一地区的时候，他们才不会这么做。
我个人的猜测是印度是世界上最大的“英语国家”，如果你考虑到说英语的人。
Richard Holder
Indians speak hundreds of languages.
印度人说数百种语言。
Indians speak hundreds of languages.
印度人说数百种语言。
Collin Williams
Another thing:
It’s feasible enough for people who’ve spoken Chinese since they were toddlers to learn thousands of characters.
But your average foreigner whose language uses some form of Latin scxt? Doubtful.
People as far inland as Kazakhstan are adopting the Latin scxt alphabet. However, the main three alternatives to Latin scxt are Cyrillic, Arabic, and Hindi. All three are alphabets of some sort, so whether said language uses Latin scxt to begin with isn’t particularly relevant to this question.
In contrast, there are 3 countries on earth where Chinese characters are the dominant scxt: China, Taiwan, and Japan, and if the Chinese government is to be believed, there are only 2. While the Japanese use Chinese characters (called Kanji), they also have an indigenous alphabet, or Katakana/Hiragana, which is popular for transliterating huge numbers of foreign loan words.
另一件事:
对于那些从小就会说中文的人来说，学习几千个汉字是完全可行的。但是对于一般的使用某种形式的拉丁文字的外国人而言……我表示怀疑。
远在内陆的哈萨克斯坦人也开始采用拉丁字母。然而，拉丁文字的三个主要替代品是西里尔语、阿拉伯语和印地语。这三种语言都是某种类型的字母，所以上述语言是否以拉丁字母开头与这个问题没有特别的关系。
相比之下，世界上有三个国家/地区是汉字占主导地位的:中国、台湾和日本，或者，只有两个。虽然日本人使用汉字，但他们也有本土的字母表，即片假名/平假名，这在音译大量外来词时很流行。
Another thing:
It’s feasible enough for people who’ve spoken Chinese since they were toddlers to learn thousands of characters.
But your average foreigner whose language uses some form of Latin scxt? Doubtful.
People as far inland as Kazakhstan are adopting the Latin scxt alphabet. However, the main three alternatives to Latin scxt are Cyrillic, Arabic, and Hindi. All three are alphabets of some sort, so whether said language uses Latin scxt to begin with isn’t particularly relevant to this question.
In contrast, there are 3 countries on earth where Chinese characters are the dominant scxt: China, Taiwan, and Japan, and if the Chinese government is to be believed, there are only 2. While the Japanese use Chinese characters (called Kanji), they also have an indigenous alphabet, or Katakana/Hiragana, which is popular for transliterating huge numbers of foreign loan words.
另一件事:
对于那些从小就会说中文的人来说，学习几千个汉字是完全可行的。但是对于一般的使用某种形式的拉丁文字的外国人而言……我表示怀疑。
远在内陆的哈萨克斯坦人也开始采用拉丁字母。然而，拉丁文字的三个主要替代品是西里尔语、阿拉伯语和印地语。这三种语言都是某种类型的字母，所以上述语言是否以拉丁字母开头与这个问题没有特别的关系。
相比之下，世界上有三个国家/地区是汉字占主导地位的:中国、台湾和日本，或者，只有两个。虽然日本人使用汉字，但他们也有本土的字母表，即片假名/平假名，这在音译大量外来词时很流行。
Human beings come from different cultural backgrounds, but the default brain function of any person is the same: it’s easier to learn a short foreign alphabet than a foreign system of many thousands of characters. A variant of the Latin scxt normally has around 30 characters, and after learning them it’s simply a matter of combining them. Arabic’s a bit more complicated but once you learn the rules it’s pretty much the same way.
English is not the easiest Indo-European language to learn. However, it nonetheless has a super easy alphabet and has caught on by history’s good fortune. The spoken English language wouldn’t necessarily be easier to an Arabic speaker than Chinese, but in a digital age writing is more important than ever, and English readily wins that battle.
Cuneiform and hieroglyphs went extinct for a reason. Chinese scxt is just fine for the purposes of that society but over thousands of years they’ve also boxed themselves in. It’s too esoteric to have a broad cosmopolitan appeal. Their country’s powerful and they can increasingly compel outsiders to learn it but the change won’t come natural.
人类来自不同的文化背景，但每个人的大脑默认功能都是一样的:学习一个简短的外国字母表比学习成千上万个汉字更容易。
拉丁文字的一种变体通常有大约30个字符，学习这些字符后，只需简单地把它们组合起来。阿拉伯语稍微复杂一点，但是一旦你学会了规则，就会发现基本是一样的。
英语不是最容易学的印欧语系语言。然而，尽管如此，它还是有一个超级简单的字母表，并被历史的好运气所眷顾。对于说阿拉伯语的人来说，英语口语并不一定比中文更容易，但在数字时代，写作比以往任何时候都重要，而英语轻而易举地赢得了这场战斗。
楔形文字和象形文字的灭绝是有原因的。对于那个社会来说，中国的文字很好，但是几千年下来，他们也把自己封闭了起来。它太深奥了，无法产生广泛的世界性的吸引力。他们的国家很强大，他们可以越来越多地迫使外人学习它，但这种改变不会自然而然地到来。
English is not the easiest Indo-European language to learn. However, it nonetheless has a super easy alphabet and has caught on by history’s good fortune. The spoken English language wouldn’t necessarily be easier to an Arabic speaker than Chinese, but in a digital age writing is more important than ever, and English readily wins that battle.
Cuneiform and hieroglyphs went extinct for a reason. Chinese scxt is just fine for the purposes of that society but over thousands of years they’ve also boxed themselves in. It’s too esoteric to have a broad cosmopolitan appeal. Their country’s powerful and they can increasingly compel outsiders to learn it but the change won’t come natural.
人类来自不同的文化背景，但每个人的大脑默认功能都是一样的:学习一个简短的外国字母表比学习成千上万个汉字更容易。
拉丁文字的一种变体通常有大约30个字符，学习这些字符后，只需简单地把它们组合起来。阿拉伯语稍微复杂一点，但是一旦你学会了规则，就会发现基本是一样的。
英语不是最容易学的印欧语系语言。然而，尽管如此，它还是有一个超级简单的字母表，并被历史的好运气所眷顾。对于说阿拉伯语的人来说，英语口语并不一定比中文更容易，但在数字时代，写作比以往任何时候都重要，而英语轻而易举地赢得了这场战斗。
楔形文字和象形文字的灭绝是有原因的。对于那个社会来说，中国的文字很好，但是几千年下来，他们也把自己封闭了起来。它太深奥了，无法产生广泛的世界性的吸引力。他们的国家很强大，他们可以越来越多地迫使外人学习它，但这种改变不会自然而然地到来。
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