How Many People are there studying Chinese?

[Juliangaertner]

Hi Guys, I am quite interested to find out how many people are there actively studying Chinese worldwide? I have read some figures its 100 Million in 2014. The Confucius institute still suggests figures of 2010, they say its about 40 M. Any better findings on that? 

 

Cheers, 

 

Julian 

[aone]

截至2014年3月，全球汉语学习者已超过1亿人。

Till March 2014, the world has more than 100 million Chinese learners.

 

http://v.ifeng.com/news/society/201408/01f14b72-80a6-453a-8580-39837b1fb8a1.shtml

http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2014-08/29/content_1471209.htm

[Basil]

Golly, that's a lot of people for me to exterminate before I enter any Chinese language competitions...

[imron]

If only every one of them would buy a copy of Chinese Text Analyser and Hanzi Grids --- I'd be rich!!!1!

[Basil]

Download links above, in blue, in case learners didn't get the hint.

 

imron, bring out the text thingy for os x and i'll buy one.

[anonymoose]

I guess that's how Benny survives too.

[imron]

imron, bring out the text thingy for os x and i'll buy one.

It's currently in the works.  Ironically I use OSX personally (and have done for years) and do all Windows development on a VM.

[imron]

And back on topic, from 40 million to 100 million in 4 years.... one can't help but wonder at the accuracy/reliability of such figures.

[Basil]

I'll look forward to it!

 

 

I think there's an awful lot of children being force fed Chinese at the moment. 

[Silent]

 

one can't help but wonder at the accuracy/reliability of such figures.

Accuracy is close to zero.  I don't think there are any reliable figures out there about numbers of language students and non-native speakers for any language. The problem already starts with the definitions of Chinese and studying.

 

In the widest sense the number of students should be over a billion. Nearly all natives keep learning their own language.

Just counting non-natives I guess large numbers of Cantonese and other minorities are learning Mandarin, 100 million doesn't sound excessive to me.

Non-Chinese, 5 billion/100million, that would be 1 in 50, sounds steep to me. But there may very well be area's with large numbers of Chinese learners that influence the statistics.

[daofeishi]

 

 

Non-Chinese, 5 billion/100million, that would be 1 in 50, sounds steep to me.

 

You know, for some definition of "study", anyone who reads the reverse side of a fortune cookie fortune is "studying" Chinese 

[aone]

Figures might be exaggerating, don't take it too seriously

[Silent]

 

You know, for some definition of "study", anyone who reads the reverse side of a fortune cookie fortune is "studying" Chinese 

Considering the global distribution patterns of fortune cookies I guess fortune cookie students are comprised in "But there may very well be area's with large numbers of Chinese learners that influence the statistics."

[Lu]

And back on topic, from 40 million to 100 million in 4 years.... one can't help but wonder at the accuracy/reliability of such figures.

I have no idea for the world as a whole, but in Holland I wouldn't be surprised if the number has at least doubled in the last 5 or so years. The reason: more and more secondary schools are starting to offer it. Chinese classes have become something for a school to set itself apart and attract more and smarter students.

I think something similar (younger people learning Chinese) is going on in the US and probably elsewhere, and it adds up quickly. And then you have more and more Confucius Institutes, making learning Chinese more accessible for anyone who has an interest... No idea if the numbers are accurate, but the growth doesn't necessarily sound that crazy.