Will Mandarin be the language of future?

St_George (UK)

No. Unless they're taught from a very early stage of childhood in tandem with their native tongue. Mandarin is so, so difficult. If China really is going to dominate the world, it'll have to do so by speaking the world's dominant language to a very good standard-English.

A pupil copies a Chinese passage from a textbook at the Hudson Way School, New York. Pupils are generally capable of understanding and writing short passages by ages 6-7. Photos by Lu Huiquan / For China Daily