If the historical experience with Latin in Medieval Europe is any guide, English should continue to dominate for centuries, regardless of the fortunes of the Anglosphere countries.
And then there's India, where there will soon be more people than in China, and where English is the "language of wider communication."
English is a lot easier to master for Europeans, and for speakers of Spanish--yet another reason to doubt that Chinese will be all that influential anytime soon.
Finally, the same sort of false predictions were made for Japanese 20 years ago--which sound laughable now. I predict this article will be viewed the same way in 2025.
around here (the central valley of california) the real money is made by speaking Hmong and Laotian.. translators are desperately needed to accomodate the influx..
well, as a Chinese I think it is good for these kids to learn Mandarin Chinese. But then again I must agree with you the international tongue will be English. Simply because it is because great classics of the Western Civilizations (Cato, Aristotle, Cicero) could be mastered in English as well as Latin or classical Greek plus the classics from the "more modern" times Britain, America, and Europe.
But Chinese also offers a window to the rich ideas like Confucius (I'm proud to say I'm one of his 76th male line descendents). If these rich leftist kids have a contact with Confucian culture and ended up turning more socially and morally sober and seek the truth in Christ, then I say mroe power to them. (Confucian thoughts have very little time for today's post-modern nilhilism)
French dominated for two hundred years.
Precisely correct, IMHO.