Shift happens...

[halfdome, Danny]

Right now because of the language barrier, a united China is impossible. Each province in China has it's own spoken language, though the written language is common to them all. I think the Chinese are learning English not only because it's the language of their (current) biggest economic competitor, but also because it will allow people from differing provinces to be able to communicate with one another. When that happens, look out...

Joseph

Sounds like the reverse for what has happened here, press 1 for English :QM

[Joseph]

Sounds like the reverse for what has happened here, press 1 for English?

All too true...

Joseph

[angib]

The Indians ..... Plus, they're the most peaceful people on Earth, so they must have learned SOMETHING from all of those books.

I have a lot of respect for India and Indians, but they're only relatively peaceful - they've maintained a running war with Pakistan over Kashmir for the best part of 50 years and they have in the Sikhs what may be the most warrior-like people in the world. I read one German army officer who rated the Indian infantry as the ones the Germans feared more than any other allied troops in North Africa.

I think their greatest quality is their religious tolerance - they have offered sanctuary to those suffering religious persecution elsewhere for something like 1,500 years, starting with the Zoroastrians (now the Parsis) and continuing to this day.

Each province in China has it's own spoken language, though the written language is common to them all.

I didn't know that - I thought the Chinese used Mandarin as their common oral language.

But using English is another parallel with India, where it's often used for this purpose.

Andrew