Chinese language is on the rise by Pauline Vu from Stater online-American students have been learning to say “hola” and “bonjour” for years now, but lately, more and more of them are learning to say “ni hao.” An interest to learn Chinese has surged in the United States as China has risen as a global and economic power. In 2000, there were about 5,000 students studying Mandarin Chinese in U.S. public schools, according to the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Now that number is between 30,000 and 50,000, leaving states and districts scrambling to find enough qualified teachers.

As always in the world, as much as politicians try to shape or steer the future of a society and implement programs to maintain the status quo, the reality is demographic shifts dictate the currents the future more than governments. The same holds with languages, just look at what happen to Latin. Just because English is on top now in terms of worldwide communication it will not always be, at least not in its current form. Could Chinese be the next world language and English will be like Latin for future generations? I do not know, but the poet Rilke wrote “The future enters into us, in order to transform itself, long before it happens.”

 

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