The Internet

[Xvito]

Well when you're looking at Mandarin you're looking at one that is heavily spoken due to, well population issues. It's not hard to look at most of the world and notice how spread out the English language is.

The reason Mandarin is the most spoken language is because China has a huge population.

There are 341,000,000 English speakers and the USA has a population of 305,000,000. Same principle. Mandarin is spoken all over the world among Chinese communities. You seem to be assuming that, because it isn't a country's official language, it isn't spoken. Not the case.

Then there must be millions, millions of people in the US of A who don't speak English... Are there?!
If there are I'd have to say that I'm very surprised and that I did not know that.

 

[ygetoff]

Well when you're looking at Mandarin you're looking at one that is heavily spoken due to, well population issues. It's not hard to look at most of the world and notice how spread out the English language is.

The reason Mandarin is the most spoken language is because China has a huge population.

There are 341,000,000 English speakers and the USA has a population of 305,000,000. Same principle. Mandarin is spoken all over the world among Chinese communities. You seem to be assuming that, because it isn't a country's official language, it isn't spoken. Not the case.

Why are we even having this argument? The biggest attempt to have a unified world language failed. Arguing about which language is more spoken really makes no difference.
(Also, you are forgetting that most of the world takes english as a second language)

 

[btfx]

As a bilingual internet resident I can tell you that there is less Russian content than there is English content. I'm pretty sure the only competition is Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin (for now). But if people want the English internet, they learn English. Imagine if all your favorite English-only sites were in Portuguese... Yeah...

 

[willard3]

Imagine if all your favorite English-only sites were in Portuguese... Yeah...

Ah the wonders of Google Translate...


There really are a lot of non-Americans and non-UK'ers who read and speak English very well...probably more so than in America. I've heard stories from friends about traveling to Europe and things, where they try to order a meal in German or something and the waiter smiles politely and asks "do you want to speak English?" In that vein, non-American countries may seem to hate American tourists, but they really only hate the pompous ones who expect a new country to pander to their every desire. If you make some genuine effort to blend in (attempting to use the native language, etc.), then you get a lot more respect.

 

[Cubilone]

English today is the global language. Because of the British Empire a century plus ago, and because of the United States much more recently (which wouldn't exist if not for the former but I digress). Both have had enormous influence on the world in popular culture, politics and sciences. So much, we can really say that American and British culture is now global (globalization anyone?) It is only natural that the means of connecting the world that is the Internet will use the the global language, right?

Do not forget, it's not just you english speakers that use it. Everyone uses it so that they can communicate with you and because everyone needs it to communicate with you or to be a part of this global culture, most about everyone ends up having at least some working knowledge of english which makes multicultural communication this much easier. Mandarin does not in any case have this status because it does not transcend borders and cultures.

A lot of people get to improve their working english because of the internet and using the real wealth of information and not just the "insert foreign language here" sites. So it's a circle, really: access internet which is english because english is the global language and internet is global -> english improves -> more sites are readily understandable.

Not that I approve of everything becoming global, however. I like my greek-oriented sites...

 

[Xvito]

Then there must be millions, millions of people in the US of A who don't speak English... Are there?! If there are I'd have to say that I'm very surprised and that I did not know that.

Well there are roughly 37,500,000 foreign born people currently living in the USA, about 12.5% of the population. Most of those will be from non-English speaking countries. Add to that the hundreds of Spanish-speaking communities and you have a lot of non-Anglophones.

Wow... That's an incredible amount.

 

[Steelfists]

The internet is a series of tubes. It's not bigger or smaller, it's set, in a way similar to plumbing.

No.

What do you mean by "no"?

Meant to quote the post above you. But it worked anyway.