Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ksr!reg
From: reg@ksr.UUCP (Rick Genter)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: ENGLISH/LINGUA FRANCA - GLOBAL E-MAIL COMMUNICATIONS
Message-ID: <628@ksr.UUCP>
Date: 20 Mar 90 15:04:12 GMT
References: <90Mar17.164801est.58582@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca> <0a1GtPy2aU-MMrIdlz@twain> <2492@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Organization: Kendall Square Research Corp.
Lines: 20

In article <2492@rodan.acs.syr.edu> isr@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Michael S. Schechter - ISR group account) writes:
>I'm no language specialist so I may be wrong here, BUT,
>how many English speakers are there as compared to say Chinese speakers?
>
>After all, we're not talking the "ethnicity" of the language, we're talking
>about the specific langauge.. You're obviously throwing all of asia together!
>How many Japanese speak Chinese as opposed to English?
>-- 
>Mike Schechter, Computer Engineer,Institute Sensory Research, Syracuse Univ.
>InterNet: isr@rodan.acs.syr.edu   Bitnet: SENSORY@SUNRISE 

Think about it: the population of the PRC is ~1.25*10**9.  The population
of all of the English-speaking countries of the world (where English is the
primary language) is < .5*10**9.  Ignore different dialects in both languages;
my guess is that in terms of *primary* language, Chinese wins out over
English big-time.

What I don't understand is why so many people are so hot on having a single 
language for all humanity?  There is added value in diversity...
					- reg