Among the seven continents, Asia is the largest one in terms of land, diversity, population, and oh, the language as well. Being a massive continent, it is now home to 4.46 billion people with a variety of tongues! Can you make any guesses?
Say around 2,300 languages — which is a lot!
Now, among this number of languages, which is the most spoken one? Without a shadow of a doubt, people would see in the direction of China. Chinese is the prime language spoken in Asia.
But how’s that? Well, China is a densely populated country according to the facts. Let’s say Asia is the continent with six times the population. So it does make sense that most Chinese speakers reside in Asia. Thus, if you want to target this region, you should hire Chinese translation services.
With over 1 billion speakers in Asia only, Chinese is the topmost spoken language. It’s not just a language, but a family of the language dialects. There are two known dialects of Chinese
- The Simplified Chinese
- The Traditional Chinese
But Why’s Chinese so Popular?
Besides the obvious fact that the population is the larger contributor, the economic growth in China is mainly the reason behind the popularity.
Some analysts even say that China will be leading the world’s economy by 2050, and thus it’s about time you learn about the places where Chinese is spoken.
Let’s Begin with China
So with a population of 1.4 billion people, China takes the hat for most Chinese-speaking people around the world. It’s just simple math. Learning Mandarin Chinese is not an easy task by any means.
Businesses have to communicate in Chinese, besides the 293 languages that do exist in China. Although these are not languages, but the dialects spoken in different regions. The more remote you travel, the more distinct and complicated the Chinese dialect will become.
The Sinitic Branch of the Sino-Tibetan language with Mandarin is spoke by at least 70% of the total population of China.
Besides this, the standard Mandarin is mostly spoke in Beijing as the national language of China.
What about Taiwan
Officially a part of the Republic of China, Taiwan has a distinct recognition as a separate country. Mandarin Chinese is the official national language spoke freely once the Japanese rule ended.
70% of the total population in Taiwan speaks Mandarin Chinese. Thus, if are planning to expand your business in Taiwan, you should hire professional Chinese translation services.
The majority group speaks Taiwanese Hokkien as their mother tongue in addition to the national language.
And Singapore…
Officially there are 4 languages spoke around Singapore — English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil.
3 million people from the total population speak Mandarin Chinese, which makes about only 12%, which is not completely surprising at all.
The most spoken dialect is from Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese language families. Although with the passage of time, the use of Chinese and English is drastically decreasing.
What about Macau?
Technically there are two official languages in Macau – Cantonese, and Portuguese. Around 85.7% of the total population speaks the Cantonese dialect, while only 3.2% of the population speaks Mandarin Chinese.
Cantonese is one of the major dialects spoke in Macau. Although Cantonese is the tonal language, it does have up to nine tones, which makes it comparatively harder to learn as compared to Mandarin Chinese (with four tones).
Due to the influx of tourism, Chinese is the most spoken language. Mandarin teaching in primary and middle schools are now made compulsory by the special administrative government.
What about Hong Kong?
According to one report in 1996, it was found that 65,892 residents spoke Mandarin Chinese in Hong Kong.
So it suffices to say now that in the current scenario, both Chinese and English are the most common languages spoke in the territory. Around 47.8% of the population speaks Mandarin, out of which 1.4% speak Chinese as their first language.
If you get to interact with the locals you will spend time learning Cantonese dialect especially if you want to navigate through the streets. But from the business point of view, Mandarin Chinese is the most helpful in Hong Kong’s business world.
Don’t Forget the USA!
AH! How could we ever do that? Chinese is the second most spoke language in the US. with over 2.9 million people in the USA are know Chinese speakers. With time, the number of Chinese speakers has quadrupled.
Even most Chinese immigrants can speak English very well and vice versa.
At one point most Chinese speakers were concentrate in New York (549,000), Los Angeles(399,000), and San Francisco (334,000) areas.
The most spoken dialects you will hear are Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese.
If you are looking to learn a new Asian language, let it be Chinese for all the right reasons. It will come in pretty handy in most Asian countries, as you have learned it by now.
Or you can always get help from Chinese translation services around the world. It’s time to test your linguistic skills, are you ready?
