http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7131205.stm

- I thought Panama Canal was to the US what the Sueze was to Britain?

Joss Whedon called it.

Nothing wrong with learning as many languages as one can. Only wish I would of did it myself, hell I hardly know English.

But in ten years, how many of those children being taught Mandarin will not have succumbed to the lead in all those imports?

If Joss Whedon is correct, people will only swear in Chinese, and use English for everything else. :P

I'd say most people should be taught at least the basics of three languages: English, Mandarin, and one Romance language (French, Spanish, etc.) I think that would cover most of the bases.

Even though English is the only language I am fluent in, I learned more about English grammar from studying Spanish in high school than from any English class.

Back in the late 70's, a futurist conference (brainstorming about trends of the future) concluded that Spanish would be the overall world language eventually, due to the many similarities to other languages. We will have one basic language eventually, so that people can communicate globally. Whether that is English, Spanish, or something else, remains to be seen. I think Chinese would be too difficult and lacking in easy comparisons, and so will only be seen as an extra, rather than a primary, language.