China and Japan’s Economy

China’s economy has been on the news a lot lately. Is America scared of China thinking that they may take over out status of being the strongest economy and super power of the world? Hmmm.

I was talking to a Japanese person. This person told me that former President Bush visited Asia some time ago while he was on his presidency. Bush visited Japan for one day, and China for two days. Interesting. Does that mean that America reveres China more than Japan?

Some Japanese people I’ve talked to think that Americans are all scrambling to learn Chinese. They think that Japanese has become a forgotten language and has lost its usefulness to Americans. I really don’t think so. I have seen Japanese offered as a foreign language more than Chinese. Of course the kids taking Japanese are big fans of Japanese animation. They are not taking Japanese to help them succeed in business. At least that isn’t their motive now.

I was looking at a graph to see how many people speak Chinese. If you count all the native English speakers along with those who learn it later in life then it is more than Chinese. But counting native speakers alone Chinese far surpasses English.

I know there are a lot of people who can speak English who can go overseas and teach this international language. I wonder if someday it will someday be Chinese and China will end up being the biggest super power. Would that really change how I as a regular American will go about my daily life? Would I be forced to learn Chinese? I’m not in school anymore, it’s not like I have to take compulsory education. So many questions. I’m not too worried about it. Maybe I should be? I guess time will tell.