Why don't the Chinese learn English instead of Mandarin

[Satyamavejayanti]

ronki23

Namaste,

In India the languages other than Hindi include Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Marwari, Bengali, Assamese, Tamil, Telugu and Malayam. Absolutely no need to learn Hindi if you've got the local languages that are unintelligible; just use English (which they do).

There is no need for English either in India IMO, why do Indians speak English? Why Cant they all Speak a native language and use either Hindi or Tamil ect or even Sanskrit to communicate between each other?

In China they speak Yue, Min, Wu, Hakka, Hokkien, Tibetan and Mongolian; all of which are unintelligible from one another. No point whatsoever learning Mandarin; just use English

Because English is not their native language, they have more pride and respect for their own languages then colonised Indians do.

China is economically and Materially more prosperous then India and done it without a major chunk of the population having to speak a European language.

Why don't Americans speak Hindi?

 

[Brickjectivity]

They will.

If its in elementary school then I am Ok with that. Our school systems work by grades tied to age, and I think that has to change before we can incorporate languages for younger people.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Because in America they speak DIALECTS of the same language- English

Except for those who speak Spanish. Many of them are descended from people who lived in what is now the US when it was a territory of Spain and/or Mexico.

And except for those who speak German. Or Polish. Or Hmong. Or any of the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of different languages spoken in the US. Including the hundreds of Native American languages.

The US does not have an official language, although there are efforts to declare that English be that language, and that everyone speak it, read it, write it...

English as a solution for Chinese having many different languages and dialects is, well....I'll leave it at that. Why not Russian? Or Bengali? Or Latin? So they need a common language? Why is English the solution versus something else?

 

[GoodbyeDave]

The people of north India speak languages descended from Sanskrit; they are similar, but no more mutually intelligible than Italian and Spanish, both descended from Latin. But the south Indians speak Dravidian languages, which no more resemble the Aryan languages than Spanish does Turkish. A Bengali speaker has little difficulty in learning Hindi, but a Tamil speaker would. English provides a level playing field for all.

China is a different matter. Firstly, 75% are native speakers of Mandarin. Secondly, everyone uses the same script. Thirdly, the differences are in sounds and vocabulary, rather than grammar. A Hakka speaker has no more difficulty learning Mandarin than the Spaniard learning Italian. Lastly, there's no tradition of English as a lingua franca.