Is English more important than Mandarin Chinese?

Currently, English clearly provides access to much more of the world than Mandarin Chinese. For example, one can travel to most countries in the world and expect to find people in airports, hotels, and tourist sites who know some English. This is much less true for Mandarin, although Mandarin has more native speakers. read more

The necessity of speaking English in the workplace has therefore increased the number of individuals looking to showcase their English skills for potential employers. Global estimates figure more than 1.5 billion people around the world are trying to learn English. read more

That means China has more English learners than the U.S. has English speakers. Last month, China hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in the capital city of Beijing. But the meeting was not in Chinese – or any Asian language. read more