Bilingualism in China

Abstract

Bilingualism is a very common phenomenon all over the world and exists in different forms. This paper presents the case of China. In the past, China was split into different countries, with different ethnic groups, each one speaking a different language. In order to facilitate the communication and keep the union of the country, the government of China has adopted mandarin as the official language. Mandarin is a modern and simplified language created based on Peking dialect. Despite the creation of the official language, the languages spoken by the ancient nations continue in the form of dialects that are completely different from mandarin in phonetics. The education and the media are obligated to use only mandarin and this has contributed to the high divulgation of mandarin for the people all over the country. This paper discusses the mandarin education, its contribution for the development of the country, the consequences of the obligatory use of mandarin, the bilingual education that exists in some regions of China and the bilingual phenomenon due to the fact that many Chinese speak two languages, mandarin and a local dialect, alternating between them in different contexts.