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by drivebyhooting 446 days ago
What’s good for China is not good for Canada in the long run. There are many reasons you can think of.

A small and often overlooked one is that a Chinese hegemony would decrease the língua franca status of English.

3 comments

Sure, but I don't see much of a difference from importing from China vs. the U.S. in terms of real impact.

I don't really care so much for the "lingua franca status of English" (even though it's the only language I speak fluently). While yes, this is one of Canada's main languages (not that we don't have a lot of Cantonese/Mandarin speakers too), China itself would be a good example that one can succeed without speaking the language which has the "lingua franca status"

Perhaps it's worth noting that the number of fluent Mandarin/Cantonese speakers in Canada is probably not much lower (as a percentage - ~4% in 2016 and I can imagine it's only increased since then) than the number of fluent English speakers in China (5%)

edit: 4% is actually the number of Canadians who spoke Mandarin or Cantonese as a first language in 2016 (which again, is likely higher now). The number of fluent combined Chinese language speakers is almost certainly higher then, even if just a little bit.

Millions of Chinese learn English in school from a very early age to have access to the global labor market.

You have a huge unrecognized privilege in being a native English speaker.

Not sure why you're making this personal. I do of course realize the privilege in speaking English as a first language, being born in a developed nation, as a white cis-man, and so on.

To cling to the idea that English need continue to be the most important global economic language though, is a type of linguistic and economic supremacy I don't care to partake in.

If you were playing a strategy game you would definitely value your country’s language remaining the língua franca.

The same logic applies in the real world. It’s not personal. It’s the most impersonal thing possible.

But keeping with the US is not better both in the short and the long term, for lack of possible trust after what just happened over the course of three months.
It's also good for Canada because the local industry will be forced to compete with China with the consumer benefiting.