Between Russian and Mandarin Chinese as alternative world's lingua franca
Between the 2 languages mentioned, the higher chance if ever to become the alternative world's lingua franca (meaning common language) will be Russian.
Here are the reasons why:
1. You only need to memorize 33 Russian alphabets versus 1000 common Chinese characters for writing and reading.
2. Russian is a non tonal language while Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. One wrong pronunciation of a word in tonal language means misunderstanding. Such as wo xiang shuijiao meaning I want to sleep or I want dumplings depending on the tone on oral communication and characters in written communication.
3. It is indeer easier to memorize words written in alphabets than of characters as a non Chinese speaker.
4. It is easier to pronounce non tonal words and easier to understand the context than of tonal words.
P. S. If you read once that Mandarin Chinese is one of the hardest languages on earth, then I say that Cantonese Chinese is harder because it has 8 tones versus Mandarin Chinese 4 tones with a neutral tone.
Chinese preceded alphabets but the ERROR was continued, like driving to Nth Pole driving EAST. Needs to be discarded in the dustbin of history & the problem fixed once & for all —- waist human brain & destroys creativity. China was crippled by language.
I agree Jameen but Russian only spoken by 258m people & young Slavic peoples already learn English. Completely agree on Chinese, for most chances of learning is almost next-to-none & Chinese depends on Pinyin (English) to write most people can't write w/o computer.
Kean-Tatt, this may seem cute to non-Chinese speakers but I think it is SO sad... Most non-Mandarin speakers (still) butcher the pronunciation & depend on the listener to "fill in the gaps"
21SilkRd
Between Russian and Mandarin Chinese as alternative world's lingua franca
Between the 2 languages mentioned, the higher chance if ever to become the alternative world's lingua franca (meaning common language) will be Russian.
Here are the reasons why:
1. You only need to memorize 33 Russian alphabets versus 1000 common Chinese characters for writing and reading.
2. Russian is a non tonal language while Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. One wrong pronunciation of a word in tonal language means misunderstanding. Such as wo xiang shuijiao meaning I want to sleep or I want dumplings depending on the tone on oral communication and characters in written communication.
3. It is indeer easier to memorize words written in alphabets than of characters as a non Chinese speaker.
4. It is easier to pronounce non tonal words and easier to understand the context than of tonal words.
P. S. If you read once that Mandarin Chinese is one of the hardest languages on earth, then I say that Cantonese Chinese is harder because it has 8 tones versus Mandarin Chinese 4 tones with a neutral tone.