BG> Even allowing for the "twice as many" using English as their second
BG> language, it STILL comes nowhere near the number of people who speak
BG> Mandarin alone, not to mention the 500 million Chinese who speak
BG> Cantonese or other regional dialects, all of which comprehensively
BG> fucks your theory about English being the most commonly used
BG> language.  It is, however, the most widely spread.

PE> I don't believe that is being interpreted correctly.
PE> E.g. my wife, from mainland China, learnt English at school,

BG> And I'll bet that there are some remote
BG> provinces where they don't even have schools,

You'd likely loose your bet. They even have proper schools for the mongols
who live in tents etc, tho most of even those dont live in tents anymore.

I was reading the memoirs of one of them who went to a school that
had been in continuous operation since 100BC would your believe. You
look at say the english public schools which have a few hundred years
of history, but that one is a couple of thousand fucking years.

BG> let alone teach anything other than their own regional dialects.

As far as I know they ALL now are required to teach
mandarin, tho that may not apply in say Tibet or Mongolia.

--- PQWK202