Jun 29, 2008

The future of English: Chinglish

"By 2020, native speakers will make up only 15 percent of the estimated 2 billion people who will be using or learning the language," reports Wired Magazine. "An estimated 300 million Chinese — roughly equivalent to the total US population — read and write English but don't get enough quality spoken practice."

In other words, get used to sentences like this: —

  • if you are stolen, call the police at once.
  • please omnivorously put the waste in garbage can.
  • deformed man lavatory.
  • HOW MANY INFORMATIONS CAN YOUR FLASH DRIVE HOLD?
  • OUR GOALIE NOT HERE YET, SO GIVE CHANCE, CAN OR NOT?
More people will soon be speaking this way than currently live in the United States.

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