Astonishing Facts....
Discussion
TwigtheWonderkid said:
mickk said:
Fort Jefferson said:
More people in China speak English, than all the countries who speak it as a first language.
That sounds wong to me.If he means actual people, then he's talking rubbish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by...
= 336,358,172
Some web sites say there are 250-350 million Chinese people learning English (to some level)
So it isn't a direct comparison but there is a logic.
Rawwr said:
From countries who have English as an official first language, I tallied 396M population in total. It's estimated that despite a population of 1.379bn, there are only around 13M English speakers in China.
The 13M is a degree level / fluency IIRC. Those that speak some English is much higher; it's taught widely in schools?When I was in some out-of-the-way places in China a couple of years ago, groups of children would often rush up to us, ask "Speak English ?" and then love to practice on us - names, which country were we from, which football team did we support, etc.. But their teachers, if present, generally had very strong accents, which was reflected to a large degree in the children's speech, though they probably got a lot of pronunciation from TV or videos. If parents were present, they were generally keen for their children to interact with us, but did not have a word of English themselves. Whether those children could be included within the number who "speak English" is however debatable. Many of them of course will by now have progressed much further.
Vaud said:
Rawwr said:
From countries who have English as an official first language, I tallied 396M population in total. It's estimated that despite a population of 1.379bn, there are only around 13M English speakers in China.
The 13M is a degree level / fluency IIRC. Those that speak some English is much higher; it's taught widely in schools?DocJock said:
Vaud said:
Rawwr said:
From countries who have English as an official first language, I tallied 396M population in total. It's estimated that despite a population of 1.379bn, there are only around 13M English speakers in China.
The 13M is a degree level / fluency IIRC. Those that speak some English is much higher; it's taught widely in schools?DocJock said:
Eh? There's 325M in the US alone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by...234,171,556 as a first language (it discards <5 year olds)
TwigtheWonderkid said:
DocJock said:
Vaud said:
Rawwr said:
From countries who have English as an official first language, I tallied 396M population in total. It's estimated that despite a population of 1.379bn, there are only around 13M English speakers in China.
The 13M is a degree level / fluency IIRC. Those that speak some English is much higher; it's taught widely in schools?TwigtheWonderkid said:
mickk said:
Fort Jefferson said:
More people in China speak English, than all the countries who speak it as a first language.
That sounds wong to me.If he means actual people, then he's talking rubbish.
Greg_D said:
Have you looked at the numbers. 360m speak British as a native language. The population of China is 1.4bn. Do 1/4 of Chinese speak English???? It’s possible.... I wouldn’t be so dismissive!
The question would be "what level of English"... Given it is taught in schools and English is so widespread in culture, I believe that 1/4 could speak a few words/phrases. But I wouldn't be able to talk about the nuances of a jet engine with any confidence.TwigtheWonderkid said:
DocJock said:
Vaud said:
Rawwr said:
From countries who have English as an official first language, I tallied 396M population in total. It's estimated that despite a population of 1.379bn, there are only around 13M English speakers in China.
The 13M is a degree level / fluency IIRC. Those that speak some English is much higher; it's taught widely in schools?Blakeatron said:
Muntu said:
When you are snogging the missus, your bodies create what is effectively an unbroken tube that starts at your a
hole and ends at hers
What about nostrils?hole and ends at hersTwigtheWonderkid said:
mickk said:
Fort Jefferson said:
More people in China speak English, than all the countries who speak it as a first language.
That sounds wong to me.If he means actual people, then he's talking rubbish.
Vaud said:
The question would be "what level of English"... Given it is taught in schools and English is so widespread in culture, I believe that 1/4 could speak a few words/phrases. But I wouldn't be able to talk about the nuances of a jet engine with any confidence.
This is the crux of it. Without stating what level of fluency it could be anything. There are probably quite a few people in China who grew up in an English speaking country or household so have as good English as the average Brit. There are also probably over a billion people who know that the English for Ni-Hao is 'Hello'.Shakermaker said:
If every star in the universe was represented by one green pea, there would be enough peas that they would overflow if they were poured into the London Olympic Stadium
The number of stars in the infinitely large universe? (Tin hat on for a geek attack.) Sounds like an infinite number of peas... which is a lot! 
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