Quote Originally Posted by Eric C. View Post
[Chinese] has a significant drawback [as an international language]- all the speakers are concentrated in just one state.
Actually, there are other drawbacks for Chinese: First, it has a writing system that is difficult to learn even for native Chinese speakers, and second, the "tonal" nature of Chinese makes it more difficult to learn as a language for spoken communication. So both of these factors make it less likely that Chinese could become an international lingua franca (i.e., a common second language for practical communication).

Hell, the Mandarin dialect isn't even a spoken "lingua franca" inside of China -- it may be the official national language of the PRC, but countless millions of Chinese citizens speak Mandarin poorly, or not at all.

So, while Ramil (and Hanna, I'm sure) might find glee in the idea of some other language knocking English "off the throne" as the world's most popular Second Language, I certainly wouldn't wager any money on Chinese being the language to replace English!