Chinese as the Second Lingua Franca

by Chung Hyon-gon

English has been the lingua franca of the world for a long time. The number of people who use English as a second language is about 370 million and the number of people learning the language is around 750 million. Approximately 85% of official language of international organization is English, too. Asia is not an exception of that: in most trades and business convention in Asia, English is used as the primary lingua franca. Despite the dominance of English, Chinese language will be the second lingua franca of business in north and south east Asia at the turn of the century because of China’s increasing economic influence and the increasing number of Chinese learners.

As its regional economic influence increases, China is on the way to the most influential country in north and south east Asia due to its investment to the area. China is a strongly emerging economy on the basis of the fact that from 1979 to 1999 its rate of economic growth measured by GDP (Gross Domestic Production) is 9.6% on average. This means that GDP per person in 1999 is about 17 times of it in 1979. GDP and economic power is closely related: the U.S.A, the largest GDP in America, is the leader in the continent the same as Germany in EU. With such an unparalleled economic growth, China is giving a huge influence on north and south east Asia through its investment. Recently, the former Chinese President Jiang Zemin announced a new Chinese foreign policy, ‘Buy Asia’ in order to extend investment to Asia. With the policy, more Chinese companies do their business in Asia and this might give considerable economic influence to the countries. One example of Chinese increasing influence is Chinese market share in Japan. Chinese market share in Japan it was 5.0% in 1990, while was 13.2% in 1997. China also made a contract with ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) for an FTA (Free Trade Area) in 10 years. Since an FTA allows both parts to import and export goods without or with much less tariff, it will lead both China and ASEAN to enlarge the opportunities to trade and if trade increases, more companies and people in ASEAN will be related to China. As a result, China and ASEAN will be more influencing to each other. Therefore, China will be most influencing as one country in south east Asia.

Because of the increasing Chinese economic influence in the region, Chinese language is getting more necessary for north and south east Asian people because more and more Chinese companies do their business in the area and they hire local residents as their employees. Due to Chinese economic development, companies in north and south east Asia require their employees to learn Chinese and look for applicants with the ability to use Chinese. In turn, this trend urges university students to learn the language, too. In Korea, for example, many companies ask their members to start learning Chinese as their trade with China and the number of their branches in China increase. To give an example of companies’ requirement for Chinese language, Korean conglomerates, Samsung and SK, are encouraging their employees to realize the importance of Chinese. Lee geon-hee, the chairman of Samsung, said in 2001 that ‘Chinese is not an option any more but a desperate tool.’ Choi tae-won, the chairman of SK, also announced that English and Chinese were going to be the official languages in SK groups in 10 years. According to a Korean job information company, Recruit, more companies tend to want applicants who can communicate in Chinese. Because of this trend – companies prefer employees with the ability to use Chinese – there is Chinese fever among university students who want to join companies. In Kyongbuk University’s Chinese class, although there were only 60 students in September last year, the number is over 130 at the moment. Even a great number of students go to China to learn the language. According to Korean students’ Association in China, there were only about 100 Korean students in 1991, but surprisingly there were about 15,000 in July 2002. It is around 150 times increase in 10 years. Just as Korea, more and more people learn Chinese language in Thailand. According to a travel magazine, AQUA, there is an increasing number of Chinese language schools and most Thai university students learn the language there due to Chinese economic influence: CP group, one the most famous companies, and most banks in Thailand are possessed by Chinese people. Even the second princess of the country, Pratel, learned Chinese language and now she can communicate in the language and read Chinese character. If the popularity of Chinese among north and south east Asian people continues, there must be more Chinese learners than ever.

As previously stated, it is sure for a long time in the future that English will play a role of the primary lingua franca, since, in general, a lingua franca exists for a long time. French, for example, was the lingua franca of the world in 17th and 18th century and it is also the lingua franca of the world in diplomacy lasting over 4 centuries. French is the official language in most international organization such as UN, UNESCO, I.O.C, Olympic and so on. This shows that once a language becomes a lingua franca, it hardly disappears in a short period.

As the increasing influence of China and number of Chinese learners, Chinese will be the second lingua franca of business in north and south east Asia followed by English. As English became a lingua franca of the world after the U.S. became the leader of the world, Chinese should be the second lingua franca of business in north and south east Asia at the turn of the century. If the Chinese economic influence, the necessity of Chinese and the increasing number of Chinese learners in north and south east Asia are considered, it will be understandable to predict Chinese will be the second lingua franca of business in the region at the turn of the century.