But why?!

Hi Lara! I did not know that Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world and I beg to say that I refuse to accept that. I still believe that English is the main language of the world. Even the English language has its different kind but in general this is the language that everybody turns to when language barrier comes in the way. I want to put it this way, Chinese people know how to speak Mandarin and English. Every or say most countries know how to speak their own languages and English. No matter what part of the world you are in, you will get understood if you know how to say at least a few English words like where, what, why, who and how. In relation to this, I just want to say that learning languages is fun. I am learning Nihongo (Japanese language) right now and I want to study Hangeul (Korean language) next! =D

Maybe because mandarin is mother tounge but english is international language. Its true that the population of chinese are spreading almost all over the earth, but i guess the language only spoken by them alone. But english, because it is an international language almost everyone can speak it and even if they can't they will want to learn it especially for bussiness person who need too communicate with world wide.

Lara, I Chinese (on in china but Singapore) and I can speak Mandarin. To clarify I well I think it might be the most spoken in terms of population but it is not the most widely used, like around the world. The population in china is huge plus Taiwan and some across the world. So I think English is still the most widely used language. Plus you have to understand there are a lot of dialects around, so this is not just mandarin they are speaking about. And toward your queries, there are many business man are learning mandarin so the can do business with business man in China

He probably meant a large percentage of the population spoke mandarin.But English is spoken in most countries and is hence the language where business is conducted.A few countries whose population is in large numbers speak Mandarin,hence it is said that the number of people speaking Mandarin is large.Though, i must add that many nations are learning to speak Mandarin as they can conduct business better with these countries who speak Mandarin.

Actually I think English is the most spoken tongue in the world. At this moment there are probably one thousand million of people learning this language around the world. You are able to communicate everywhere if you speak English.

Is Mandarin the official language that spoken in Main land China? I heard that language speak from my Chinese friends, but I don't understand it. So, you were saying why people speak English more often rather than their own mother tongue? It is hard to explain, probably they want foreign investment, or consider English is more like an international language?

First, I should clarify that although my picture here is in chinese, I am not from china and I don't know how to speak mandarin. :) But I think that now days, every self-respecting business sends his employed to study chinese, even in basic level. economists recommend to business-men to learn mandarin, because recently, china is taking an important place in the global economy. but english is easier to understand and write, so the language is used in business world. modern humans learn english even if they don't mean to, through movies, series, the web and so on.. so that learning english is more natural. One more thing, is that the number of people that knows english, in some level, is bigger than it is known.

I first heard of mandarin language when i saw the movie 'Hero' on world movies and it was in mandarin. I always thought english is most widely spoken language in the world.Here also speaking and writing english is kinda must and also its a mandatory subject in school.

I speak English, and I've honestly never even heard of the language Mandarin. I just looked it up and I guess it's Chinese. That would makes sense because China is so overpopulated. I would think living around here, Spanish would be one of the most spoken languages. Thank you for letting us know this, because I actually really had no idea!