700 million people speaking the same language
And God said his aim was to confuse the people….but, in China about 700 million can speak 'putonghua' the common Chinese.
The fluency rate in the city is about 66% and in the countryside, 45%…overall 53.06%, based on a survey of 500,000 people.
The Chinese use the same characters, hanzi, when they write but the pronunciation varies from region to region.
The hanzi date back to about 3,000 BC, very non-coincidentally to about the time of the Biblical Tower of Babel.
Many Chinese can speak their local dialect as well as putonghua (poo toe ng whowaa).
More men, 56.76% can speak common Chinese than women, 49.22%.
70% of the younger fold, 15-29 are fluent compared to 31% of those over 60.
University student volunteers are being asked to head to the countryside to help rural primary and secondary teachers (NOT kids) imrpove their putonghua.
Chinese who can speak their local dialect, putonghua and cantonhua, the language of southern China, are worth the most to businesses.
How is your Chinese?
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