hebda999:If China rises to global superpower, people will learn Chinese just as they happen to learn English today - unless someone discovers Esperanto again.

Back in the 1980s I had a button that read "Plan Ahead : Learn Japanese" Everyone was convinced that Japan was going to take over the world and everyone was talking about how important it would be to learn Japanese. A few people tried, very few succeeded, and the fading of Japan's economic star put an end to the "Japan-mania" that swept across college campuses and corporate boardrooms. [In fact, one of the universities I attended had a whole building called the "Japan Center". It was demolished a few months ago ...]

Granted, Japan was never a military or political superpower, but Russia (well, the Soviet Union) certainly was. In my college Russian classes there were lots of people who were going to join the foreign service, etc. and/or help lay the foundation for capitalism in Russia.

And now it's Chinese : local high schools are offering Chinese classes where students spend an entire semester learning how to say "Ni hao" and "Zhi shi wo de shu", how to write a couple dozen hanzi, etc. because the pundits tell us that Chinese is going to be the next world language.

Sorry if I'm sceptical about the whole better-learn-Chinese thing, but I've seen this story more than a few times before

Americans looking for the best return on their language-learning investment would be better off learning Spanish than Chinese.

Amike,

Paul

pdenisowski:
Americans looking for the best return on their language-learning investment would be better off learning Spanish than Chinese.
Paul

Si, es mucho mejor aprender español.*



* Yes, it is much better to learn Spanish.

Americans looking for the best return on their language-learning investment would be better off learning Spanish than Chinese.

But what is the reality of the typical return on language-learning investment?

Judging from the typical competence in French of a whole generation in England (from my youth) who learnt French at school, I'd say very little return.

Better to learn Esperanto to have the possibility of holding a decent conversation with a few people, than to learn a foreign national language and only be able to present oneself as a stumbling fool to a large number of people.

sudanglo:Better to learn Esperanto to have the possibility of holding a decent conversation with a few people, than to learn a foreign national language and only be able to present oneself as a stumbling fool to a large number of people.

It depends on what your aims are. My French is pretty bad (and self taught, so I can't blame the local school system) but it's good enough to do the touristy things - read a French ticket machine without an English version, read a menu and order, ask how to get somewhere, read an explanatory text and understand most of it. If British people even knew French to that level it would be useful, considering the number of British tourists who go to France.

razlem:

bartlett22183:At present, English's star is in the ascendant, but some people have said to watch out for Mandarin.

I don't see the current form of Mandarin becoming an auxiliary language. The grammar is easy enough (though quite different than what we're used to), but the tones and the characters are difficult to learn.

I've used Esperanto to discuss my own language here on Lernu. I would agree that it's adequate enough to discuss the language itself and other constructed languages in general. Whether there's a bias when discussing 'competitors', I wouldn't be able to say. How do Esperantists generally feel about Ido or Volapuk?

Ido and volapuk r not real competitors for e-o, esperantists laght or (a few) feel curiosity.
chinese or spanish r competitors for english with massive number of native speakers.