The other thing I wanted to mention was my cousin-in-law relatives in Norway. They all speak perfect English, better than many immigrants in Canada. Why? Because the great majority of their entertainment is in English (besides the fact that they learn it in school). Movies, books, the internet, especially including online gaming in the case of my cousin’s husband. This is a factor that China doesn’t have. Their population is big enough that they have reason to dub if they import movies, their internet is locked down so they have more reason to use internal sites, and they have native authors who write enough content to keep everyone thoroughly entertained. Besides, they’re all studying anyway .

China does scare me. I don’t like how they run their country, though I can see why they might think it’s the smart way to go. They also do have a crazy population that is constantly emitgrating. I don’t know exactly how their power base will grow, but I think it will. They’re doing the right things, and they have control over their population. *shudder*

I don’t understand why people are so worried about China’s emerging status as an economic superpower.  So what if the U.S. ends up only being the world’s second or third largest economy.  Is being first really so important?  We might have reason to fear China if they showed signs of colonial expansion, or if we got into a shooting war with it.  But both of those seem like very unlikely scenarios.  China has caused some trouble with that pesky veto power it has as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council – but it’d have that power regardless of its wealth or population.  The only really worrying thing about China is how it treats its own citizens.  That’s hardly a threat to us in the outside world, although it should be a concern.  But on that score, a lot of the change is going to have to come from within the country.

I wouldn’t want to see all the other languages die out, so I hope he’s right about English becoming the world’s "second language".  It’s just too bad it had to be English, and couldn’t be another language that made… slightly more sense.

Teya: "However, it feels like because I have an English mother tongue, I don’t have my own long standing culture. … Even to me, English feels like a trade language."

Really?  Can you read and appreciate Shakespeare?  English comes with a rich cultural heritage.  There’s a big difference between being able to use the language functionally and being able to appreciate that heritage.  That difference separates those of us who speak it as a first (or well-studied second) language and those who learn it solely for its communicative value.

Teya: "I don’t have a traditional dress or food or holidays or homeland etc etc."

Neither do I.  It’s called being Canadian, dude.

Good point about Shakespeare, and for that matter all the books I read. I guess you’re right, it has more to do with being Canadian. I get the impression it’s similar to being American or even Australian. My thought that it’s a trade language might come from the fact that I spend most of my time with a group of people from all over the world, and most of them have English as a second language or even third or fourth.

I should go back and study the history of the English language again sometime. My favourite memory is of grade 11 (I think?) when we learned things like where expressions came from. "Raining cats and dogs" etc.

I want to change my life. I don’t want to let my parents down. I don’t ever want to let my country down. Most importantly, I don’t want to let myself down. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. I want to speak PERFECT English. I WANT TO CHANGE MY LIFE!

That’s a lot of pressure. What’s more… it’s maniacal, it’s fanatical, and it’s over the top. Why are they trying so hard? Perhaps it just appears as such because of China’s high population and density, which requires a sort of collective cohesion that is alien to us individualistic North Americans. I think people underestimate the effect that having such a high population makes on so many Chinese systems, and the amount of effort that it takes to prevent the forces of entropy from leading to social degeneration.