Introduction
English became the language of international communication many years ago, and it is unlikely that it will give up its position given the situation on the world stage. The majority of scientific works are written in English, and this language is used by politicians to take part in international negotiations. Before World War I, the British Empire was the largest and most powerful state – the English colonies were located on the territory of all continents and made England the dominant player in world politics. However, after Britain left its role as the world leader, the influence of English has not weakened, because the United States emerged as the world’s most powerful country.
Today, it is not possible to accomplish any venture without using this language to some extent. It is adopted everywhere – from business negotiations to posts on the Internet, from scientific developments to interfaces on smartphones and computers. Speaking English is essential for many professions, such as Software Engineering, Business, and International Trade. Despite the growing number of Chinese and Arabic-speaking people, English will stay the most popular language in the world because of the available foundation in science, business, and politics, and also the dominance of the United States on the world stage. This paper provides an overview of each competing language and discussion on why they will not be able to replace English.
Chinese
Overview
Technically, this language is already the most popular in the world, because it is spoken by more than a billion people. This number is almost three times more than the number of people that are native English speakers (Lane). Moreover, in recent years, China has steadily increased its political and economic power, which means that more foreigners are going to be interested in learning Chinese. However, the primary challenge of people aspiring to study this language is the complexity of both the syntax and orthography.
There are thousands of hieroglyphs in the Chinese writing system. Furthermore, pronunciation is not as simple as in other languages, such as Spanish (Lane). It is worth noting that the Chinese authorities recognize this issue and view it as a high-priority problem. They are doing everything to popularize the language – Confucius Institute Headquarters, or Hanban, is the primary manifestation of their efforts. It prepares specialists for teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and develops the most thoughtful and understandable teaching tools, holds educational forums, distributes grants for studying in China, and in every way, contributes to teaching Chinese culture to foreigners (“About Confucius Institutes”). It will be possible to evaluate the efficacy of the government’s efforts only after some years. There is a probability, with the dominance of China in consumer electronics, people around the globe will learn at least a basic level of Chinese that will be sufficient to navigate through the interfaces of Chinese electronic appliances.
Education
The tremendous pace of development of China’s economy over the past decades has generated a lot of discussion among contemporary society. There are more and more hypotheses and assumptions about the origins of China’s robust progress. The government played a critical role in shaping the country’s economy (Yi 67). First, the priorities were correctly identified – most of the state budget is invested in education today (Yi 256). The state almost entirely subsidizes universities that bring valuable personnel to the country (China Power Team). Therefore, nearly all universities compete with each other to improve the quality of education (China Power Team). The state also encourages talented students – individuals with high academic performance are provided with grants and scholarships (China Power Team). The government also works for international students – there are many opportunities to receive a full tuition fee waiver.
In China, primary and secondary education were declared compulsory for all. Only harsh measures at the legislative level could deal with the prevalence of illiteracy (China Power Team). In the early 90s, only 4% of the population had higher education, only 12% received a high school certificate, and 11% were utterly illiterate (China Power Team). Today, the situation has changed dramatically because of the new legislative amendments and strict government control of education.
Diplomacy
The diplomacy of modern China is global in scope and is a complex combination of a wide variety of traditional and new methods and mechanisms. Its main goal is to promote the revival of the nation, and its main tasks are to create the most favorable international environment for the country’s development and provide resources for its economy (Zhu 8). The global scale of Chinese diplomacy is also indicated by how they are approaching international relations (Zhu 8). They recognize that the future and the fate of China are becoming more closely connected with the international community (Zhu 8). Isolation from the rest of the world, as it was during the last century, is not a practical option (Zhu 8). Therefore, the Chinese government understands that the country cannot develop without external influence (Zhu 9). In turn, today, the world cannot function without Chinese commodities. As the impact of this country will grow in world economics, many people will see Chinese as a popular language for learning because of the positive image of China in the world stage.
Science Papers
China is gradually gaining a leading position in the world in the field of research and development. In 2016, China, for the first time in history, surpassed the United States in the annual number of scientific and engineering publications (Dockrill). Their number exceeded 426 thousand against about 409 thousand among American authors (Dockrill). China’s gap is not so significant, and the United States still outranks in the number of citations of scientific papers (Dockrill). However, the chair of the National Science Board, Maria Zuber, emphasized how important it is for the United States to regain its leading position in this field and to maintain others (Dockrill). It has been about 40 years since the devastating cultural revolution, and China is slowly becoming a scientific giant. Its success is closely linked to economic growth, the investment of huge funds, and work with the diaspora.
Popular Culture Terminology
Chinese popular culture is not well-known in western countries due to the fact that Chinese is not easy to pronounce. Even the country’s name is both spelled and pronounced differently in their language. Other aspects of Chinese culture, however, such as pandas and kung-fu, have developed strong associations with the country. For instance, upon hearing the word “kung-fu,” the majority of the people will think about China. With the growth of China’s influence, more people get acquainted with Chinese cuisine. As this process continues, more words will be transferred to English as an attempt to describe the dishes. For conventional popular culture notions, such as music, it may be challenging to spread. Iconic actors and other celebrities, such as Jackie Chan, however, have already made a significant impact on spreading knowledge about Chinese culture around the globe.
Arabic
Overview
Arabic is a controversial language because public opinion is not uniform. On the one hand, the rich Arab countries have a rather severe influence on the world market of oil and fossil raw materials, and a significant number of countries consume the products of Arabic nations. On the other hand, the steady connection between Islam and terrorism pushes ordinary people away from this culture, despite its richness and depth. In addition, the absence of a Latin alphabet or any other conventional writing system understood by Europeans significantly complicates the task for those who decided to tackle this language. Grammar is also complicated and cannot be learned intuitively. In general, however, philologists argue Arabic is not so challenging to study if one approaches it without building analogies with other languages and without relying on previous experience in learning foreign languages.
There are some who believe that people will have to learn Arabic in the future. The potential reason is that the number of speakers of this language may exponentially grow all over the world in the coming years. Indeed, immigrants from Muslim countries willingly settle in Western countries, creating entire neighborhoods and areas there (Helbling and Traunmüller 392). Perhaps someday such an expansion will ultimately benefit the Arabic language. However, such a course seems unlikely because of the negative image of the Middle East. Most likely, Europeans and other people will resist accepting this language because of a potential threat.
Education
Higher education in Arab states is currently heavily influenced by the education systems of France and the United States. Recently, the mutual influence of Arab education systems has intensified. One of the main problems of higher education in Arab countries is the decline in the quality. Insufficient funding, along with an unstable political environment, is the primary reason for such an unfavorable situation (Massialas and Jarrar 22). The number of students who complete their undergraduate studies and continue their education at graduate schools in Arab universities is relatively small (Massialas and Jarrar 152). Most of them either immediately look for employment or attempt to enter a university in the West (Massialas and Jarrar 152). Literacy levels are not uniform within the Arab states because of the differences in development (Massialas and Jarrar 152). Some countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, can afford to have research centers and prestige universities, while others, heavily impacted by continuous military activities, do not possess sufficient funds for an adequate education. Therefore, it is unlikely that Arabic will become a popular language in the near future.
Diplomacy
There is no uniform Arabic diplomacy because the majority of the Arab states have conflicting interests. Arab countries try to unite only when controversial issues and foci of instability arise, but even so, common unifying points are often rejected and ignored (Stetter 386). External forces often interfere with internal Arabic political processes, and this is due to conflicts between the Arab regimes themselves based on political, and sometimes even personal contradictions (Stetter 386). Another serious problem of Arab diplomacy is the process of selecting diplomats. Often, the emphasis is not made on professionalism and competencies, but on belonging to a particular clan, or family (Stetter 390). Even the fact that the candidate does not speak a foreign language does not affect the decision when appointing a diplomat. Therefore, Arab countries are not yet able to spread their culture and influence. Financial resources may only benefit if used adequately to improve the education system and develop a uniform foreign policy.
Science Papers
The modern Islamic world has ceased to pay attention to science. Nowadays, researchers of the Golden Age of Arab history are trying to focus on the achievements of past years in order to improve the relationship between the West and the East. The Islamic world was once a pioneer in scientific breakthroughs – words like algorithm and algebra all came from the Arabic language. Today, however, much attention is given to oil, and the contemporary Arabic states failed to build their economies on human capital.
The number of scientists is deficient, resulting in meager numbers of published scientific papers. According to the statistics, only Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Algeria produced more than 5052 articles in 2016 (National Science Board 2). In contrast, China produced more than 400 hundred thousand scientific papers during the same period (National Science Board 1). The United Arab Emirates, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, was not included in the report to the insufficient number of scientific contributions (National Science Board 3). Therefore, Arabic cannot be viewed as the next competitor of English because people do not have the incentive to learn it.
Popular Culture Terminology
Current imagery of the Arabic world is often associated with terrorism, wars, and oil. Furthermore, Arab countries are not active in developing popular culture products. It is hard to think of a single celebrity or even a single word in Arabic that is common among internet users. Because of the negative public perception and the absence of a recognizable writing system, Arabic culture is very slow in distribution. There are, however, many English words that have their origins in the Arabic language. “Algorithm,” “lemon,” many astronomical, and botanical names have Arabic roots. This fact is mainly due to the enormous contributions of Islamic scholars of the Islamic Golden Age to the science. Today, however, Arabic does not have such an influence as it used to.
Conclusion
Summing up, it can be concluded that the English language will have no serious competitors in the near future. Such things depend, first of all, on geopolitical and macroeconomic processes. A country whose language could potentially replace English should be a confident leader in many vital areas. It will not happen instantly and will take enormous amounts of time. To learn the new international language, ordinary people should have a tangible incentive – a profitable venture, new opportunities, or an improvement in living standards. Only China, so far, can be become the world’s new leader and bring Chinese to the international arena. However, many obstacles exist – complexity of the language, exotic culture, and other reasons. However, those countries whose language can be learned without much investments in terms of time and efforts do not hold dominant positions in the world economy and politics. Therefore, if a person wishes to learn a new language, it should be English.
Works Cited
“About Confucius Institutes.” Confucius Institute Headquarters, 2019, Web.
China Power Team. “How does education in China compare with other countries?”China Power, 2019, Web.
Dockrill, Peter. “China Just Overtook the US in Scientific Output for the First Time.”Scientific Alert. 2018, Web.
Helbling, Marc, and Richard Traunmüller. “How State Support of Religion Shapes Attitudes Toward Muslim Immigrants: New Evidence from A Sub-National Comparison.” Comparative Political Studies, vol. 49, no. 3, 2016, pp. 391-424.
Lane, James. “The 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World.”Babbel Magazine. 2019, Web.
Massialas, Byron G., and Samir Ahmad Jarrar. Arab Education in Transition: A Source Book. Routledge, 2016.
National Science Board. Science & Engineering Indicators, 2018, Web.
Stetter, Stephan. “Middle East Diplomacy.” The SAGE Handbook of Diplomacy, edited by Costas M. Constantinou, Pauline Kerr, and Paul Sharp, SAGE Publications, 2016, pp. 385-397.
Yi, Wen. The Making of An Economic Superpower: Unlocking China’s Secret of Rapid Industrialization. World Scientific, 2016.
Zhu, Zhiqun. China’s New Diplomacy: Rationale, Strategies and Significance. Routledge, 2016.