English should be designated as the world's language

[pangaia]

57. My experience in China, and having a Chinese wife,

is a little different. I agree that Putonghua, while, probably theoretically a dialect, is considered the 'official language' of China. And as such more people in the world speak Mandarin as a primary language than any other language.

Even this is misleading as people in an area of, lets say Guangzhou, may learn Cantonese at home, but learn Mandarin in school. However, in my considerable travels across China I have not found that all Chinese know all or even several languages, especially outside the large cities, or even among the less educated in those cities.

People I know in Beijing, Qingdao, Wuxi, Wuhan do not speak Cantonese. They may know some, or even many words but not enough to communicate. Mandarin usually works...

Most/many of those ubiquitous American so-called "Chinese ' restaurants are owned by people from Fujian. My wife speaks excellent Mandarin, and knows enough of several dialects to get by, but she can't understand anything they are talking about. :&gt
They CAN communicate in "Putonghua," however.

I would still vote for Mandarin as a world language but only IF there had to be ONE language.