English may dominate at the moment, but the sheer numbers of Mandarin speakers and a determined effort by Beijing may eventually tilt the balance eastward, as this Wired magazine piece observes.
The Mandarin Offensive
Inside Beijing's global campaign to make Chinese the number one language in the world.
By Michael Erard
A light snow is falling outside the windows of Cyrus H. McCormick School in southwest Chicago, but the second graders in Room 203 are not distracted from their lesson. May Cheung, an energetic teacher from Hong Kong, holds a cup to her lips and asks, "Wo he shemma?" (What am I drinking?) A forest of arms go up. "Cha! Cha!" (Tea!) An hour later, Cheung has kindergartners counting to 27 in Mandarin as she hands out Chinese New Year hong bao, the red envelopes that promise wealth, abundance, and good fortune. For most of the kids in this Mexican-American neighborhood, Mandarin is their third language - after Spanish and English.
The children at McCormick are part of the largest grade school Chinese program in the US. Seven years ago, after a post-college stint teaching English in China, Robert Davis wandered into the offices of the Chicago Public Schools and convinced the director to start a comprehensive Chinese language program and hire him to manage it. Now 3,500 Chicago kids, from kindergartners to 12th graders, learn Mandarin. "The days of everybody trying to be American are over," Davis says. "When you do business with or go to other countries, be prepared to work on their terms."
(snip)
As Mark Liberman at Language Log notes, there are plenty of fake Chinese proverbs to go around, which meshes nicely with the previously noted fake Asian tattoos.
