Comment by JumpCrisscross
19 hours ago
> the number would plummet precipitously, likely leaving Mandarin at the top
70% of Chinese speak Mandarin as a first language [1].
> the sense of being able to say hello, thank you, and introduce themselves that is probably true
This is English learners. If you count English learners, a third of Chinese speak English and a majority of the internet-connected world.
What I'm saying is that those are people counted as "knowing English" since the typical way such things are measured is self response. Nowhere remotely near the peecents stated for many countries is accurate.
China's also been pushing Mandarin lately and claim 85%.