Chinese people who need to speak English speak English. It's a little different from the Japanese boom of the 80s when learning Japanese could actually benefit someone individually and benefit a business.

Many schools are dropping Spanish to pick up Chinese in the US. This is strange to me. The school I used to work at is phasing out Japanese to phase in Chinese... and this is pretty common now. China is a new powerhouse in world economy, but in some ways it is built on a foundation of sand. They have a population, factories, and people willing to work for pennies an hour (unlike Japan and the US) but how long is that going to last? The gap between the upper class and the lower class in China is massive. Japan is still making cars, electronics, etc. that the world wants. America is still making cars and some things the world wants. The world is not looking for Chinese high end items.... and even though all cheap things in the US are made in China, how long is that going to last on the China side? When Chinese people start wanting more, and as long as American corporations are allowed to outsource, it will be NAFTA in reverse. We went from South America to China, and when someplace else gets cheaper, we'll go there. It may be India, it may be Africa, it may be South America again, who knows?

american cars? does anyone besides americans buy them? no one overseas buys large pick-ups with 6liter engine that maybe produces 200bhp with horrible interior. that means if there is no export then there is no added value while china exports most of what it produces.

hmmm..i was under the impression that russian "roshiago" :D would be more popular.

u. found one for my country.

it says that: 95% of people speak at least 1 foreign language. 51% speak at least 2. 14% at least 3 and 5% speak none. the grey chart is for European Union average.

I would buy an American car, except Cadillacs can't be exported out of the US anymore, so fuck it, their loss. :)

However, this ain't exactly true. There's stuff all over coming from the US. They have well-founded industries exporting way outside the country and plenty of brands made in the US are sold overseas. China exports so much only cause it's cheap products that somehow get easily sold. Shitty quality made under shitty conditions by people who get paid shit. Is this the kind of industry you want for your country? Is that how you'd want your country to go from being 3rd world to being a world power in developement? Cause to me that's Human Rights being walked over.

i was bringing it up in comparison. in Europe no one buys american cars when germans (audi, vw, bmw, mercedes) and uk (jag, aston) +italians are next doors. americans can't make (with rare exceptions) cars that appeal to Europeans so they don't get any added value. but china on the other hand, even with people rights violations, makes all of it's money on export since what they make is demanded apparently overseas.

and i am not sure what americans are exporting - at least to europe. there isn't anything that couldn't be built in europe or bought cheaper from asian part of the world. at least in my house there isn't anything with "made in the usa" stamped on it.
these days it reminds me of this image when it comes to american industries.

I'm pretty sure Ford has very decent sales in Europe. While they may be made in European factories under license, they are still considered American cars and are tallied in such a way....

LOL @ the American flag made in China on the moon lol, regardless of what it means it's funny :)

MMM you make a good point that China's power is in fact based on the fact that their labour is cheap.
Invariably if they become a superpower, and their currency is adjusted to reflect their position (which they have been stubborn about doing in a tactically genius way) then their cheap labour will go up in smoke.

In fact, it is commonplace among Japanese businesses to open up plants and factories in south asian countries instead of China because of the prediction that Chinese labour will become costly sooner than later... add in some spite to fuel that fire.

Regarding American export, forget about cars! Coca Cola and McDonalds and Intel etc. That's a foothold that is hard as hell to shake loose of for any country. America has deep-rooted itself into the necessities of everyday life for most of the world, imo.

2 parts are true, but one isn't. The quality issue, it isn't partly true. You know that mostly any brand in the world is produced in China (at least parts of it)? And alot are just a rebranding (relabeled product) of what a Chinese factory produces under higher QC check. In the meanwhile another cheaper line can produce the No-brand names in the same location, no QC at all.
China, quality wise, is exactly as any other country, you get what you pay for.

I was surprised to see that Korean is the 2nd most popular after Chinese. I heard that Spanish and Chinese is the most popular, I guess that is a misinformation?

Spanish? Japan is nowhere near a Spanish-speaking country. At least in Tokyo, which is where I live, it's much easier to find a school that teaches Korean than one that teaches Spanish.

Yeah I thought that was strange myself. The person who told me that was a university student. Perhaps Spanish is most popular 2nd foreign language after Chinese in universities? Or is it all the same.