"Neither Chinese nor Spanish get the recognition and respect they deserve". Discuss.

[JamesBond007]

The vast number of native speakers of both (greater than English, in fact), plus the growing power and wealth of the countries where they are spoken (especially Chinese, of course). In addition, Spanish and Chinese are also the second and third-most spoken languages respectively in the US, being especially prominent in many of the country's big cities.

So what ? The Growing Chinese economy is the number 1 destroyer of the earth's natural environment so why encourage it ?

Also, I am more into academics than business. I don't do business with the Chinese. Academically, learning French for Sociology book and German for natural science books makes more sense.

[Tooting Carmen]

So what ? The Growing Chinese economy is the number 1 destroyer of the earth's natural environment so why encourage it ?

Also, I am more into academics than business. I don't do business with the Chinese. Academically, learning French for Sociology book and German for natural science books makes more sense.

In that case, if you're looking at academic as opposed to utilitarian reasons, then Spanish is especially good for poetry and literature.

[Tooting Carmen]

bump

[Tooting Carmen]

So what ? The Growing Chinese economy is the number 1 destroyer of the earth's natural environment so why encourage it ?

Also, I am more into academics than business. I don't do business with the Chinese. Academically, learning French for Sociology book and German for natural science books makes more sense.

As an aside, the US still consumes at least marginally more of the world's resources than China does, despite only being a quarter in size of China's population.

[samario]

I will learn Spanish soon.
In my opinion, Brazilians should learn Spanish since they start school, it's one of the languages of Mercosul and one of the most important on globe, being in the second place when it comes to international comunication.

We could build the South American country and make both languages official. That'd make it a bilingual country.

[lameduck]

To produce infleunce you need to generate money and/or create original knowledge

chinese are generating lots of money now , but their original knowledge creation is still low but increasing at high rate with increase in quality of research.

e.g chinese per publication citations are lot lower than US/UK/Germany/France/Switzerland/sweden etc , they are mainly competing on the basis of sheer numbers with west, but its increasing with every passing year.

chinese have now global brands in terms of infleunce like chinese food , shoalin kungfu etc

but above all mandarin is not an indo european language so its very very difficult to learn

spain is not even in competition , it is a tier 2 european country , it cant infleucne world globally.

[Tooting Carmen]

spain is not even in competition , it is a tier 2 european country , it cant infleucne world globally.

But when combined with the other twenty or so Spanish-speaking countries globally, this puts Spanish second only to Mandarin and above English in terms of the number of native speakers.

[WeirdLookingFellow]

There are no other peoples in history that were met with such a fascination for their culture by the Europeans as the Chinese and the Japanese.

It's true that the Chinese do not care much for standards, environment, or even their own people. But let's be honest, neither did the Europeans until recently. Europeans speak of the Chinese standards from the point of a people that were the first to invent said standards, and we all know that Europe and the US did not become first due to standards, but due to maxxing everything they possibly could. The Chinese are just behind, and when they finally reach that sweet spot, we're all fucked.

[Ruggery]

To produce infleunce you need to generate money and/or create original knowledge

chinese are generating lots of money now , but their original knowledge creation is still low but increasing at high rate with increase in quality of research.

e.g chinese per publication citations are lot lower than US/UK/Germany/France/Switzerland/sweden etc , they are mainly competing on the basis of sheer numbers with west, but its increasing with every passing year.

chinese have now global brands in terms of infleunce like chinese food , shoalin kungfu etc

but above all mandarin is not an indo european language so its very very difficult to learn

spain is not even in competition , it is a tier 2 european country , it cant infleucne world globally.

Spain is the 5th most powerful economy in Europe and one of the European countries with the most global influence.

[JamesBond007]

As an aside, the US still consumes at least marginally more of the world's resources than China does, despite only being a quarter in size of China's population.

Yeah, but China has less regulations so they actually pollute the earth more than the USA the Kyoto treaty not withstanding.