Learning Mandarin

"London is one of the multi-lingual centres of the world... the monolingual tradition of English in the past is changing very much, and I think Chinese is one of the important factors.

"People who used to be able to make their way in the world as monolingual English speakers are now finding that they've got to compete with people who are genuinely multilingual."

Despite the big increase, most analysts agree Chinese is not about to replace English as the "global language" in the immediate future.

But professor Crystal added that this may not always be the case. "It all depends on the power of the people who speak it - especially their economic power," said professor Crystal.

"A thousand years ago, people would have said it would be absurd that Latin would not be spoken in 1,000 years' time. But we know that has happened. It can only take 100 years or so for the language balance of power to shift.

"Money talks. Currently, the language money talks is the dollar. But it might not always be that way."

Adapted from BBC news, January 2007

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