this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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There were many lingua francas of which French was supposedly the first global lingua franca. That changed and it became English (from what I understand). We will probably see another language become the lingua franca, so my question is: should it be English? Are there better candidates out there? Why / why not?

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[–] ycnz@lemmy.nz 6 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Given how western society is doing, Mandarin might not be a terrible call.

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Isn't it the most difficult language to learn for Westerners?

[–] renzhexiangjiao@szmer.info 1 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

if by westerners you mean english speakers, then yes, it's known to be one of the more difficult ones. it's ultimately subjective, but what people find hard about mandarin is 1.the writing system 2.tones

what also doesn't help is definitely lack of exposure, chinese popular media isn't very popular in the west

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 2 points 1 hour ago

Westerners = Europe, USA, Australia, New Zealand

1.the writing system 2.tones

Indeed. I just looked it up and the writing system is logographic. To my knowledge, not a single Western language is logographic and more alphabetic. The tonal system is also rare (not sure if exists at all) in Western countries.

To me, those are two major differences that are difficult to overcome.

[–] shaserlark@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 hours ago

Also Chinese people are confused af if you try to speak Chinese with them. I tried several times and they were just looking at me like wtf are you doing. It’s probably a combination of not really getting why a foreigner would start speaking Chinese with them and me being extraordinarily bad at doing it too.