Interesting Facts About China

Lost In Translation

While China is a geographically and ethnically diverse country, Mandarin is regarded as the official language of the state. As such, it is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with more than 1.1 billion speakers in the world. Despite its popularity, you may be surprised to find out that not as many Chinese citizens know this language as one might think.

In fact, a spokesperson for China’s Education Ministry stated in 2013 that 400 million people cannot speak Mandarin at all. This is almost 30% of the entire population! It was further explained that a large portion of the population that can speak Mandarin does not know it well enough. This has led to a widespread effort to promote the use of Mandarin in the countryside as well as in regions with ethnic minorities.