There is not a second World language

<<they are often too much like convenient excuses of NOT learning something.>>

You can hardly blame them. You can't learn everything and some things obviously take priority. For Western children to learn Chinese at school is just not feasible. Sure you can teach them basic conversation skills, maybe by the time they leave school they will know how to talk about family, school etc. But for anything useful they will have a huge task and really you can't spend so much time learning something as useless as Chinese, because, really, even if Chinese becomes and economic superpower and the USA undergoes a big recession, English will still in no way become insignificant. It will remain very important, enough that if you know English you will be able to get by easily and Chinese will nto be worth the effort.

No, I don't. Even for me, it could be not very sensible to start learning at all. If you are for business reasons, which is quite normal for an individual, I wonder how you are going to compete with, in real terms, a huge population. We have lots of language talents, and as for Mandarin, we are either native or almost native, and we know our culture (and hence consumption patterns and so on) MUCH better than you do. The Anglophone culture and economy may be supported by diverse populations, natives and immigrants alike, but I think the people only will do those of the Sinosphere.

I'd say fundamental cultural differences and geographical spread are two other hurdles for our "competitors".

<< But for anything useful they will have a huge task and really you can't spend so much time learning something as useless as Chinese, >>

Yes, most people can get around with just English as it overshadows all others as an international language. But I wouldn't go so far as to say that Chinese (or any other major regional language) is "useless". Don't be so arrogant.

你们为什么不想要学习汉字呢？I am English, 15 years old and I am learning Chinese characters merely for fun - and of course the language too.
Tones are made out to be hard, but you learn them naturally if you persevere. The writing - learn several characters a day, and you will soon know enough. Even though there are thousands, you will be able to understamd the rough meaning of most everyday things with the knowledge of only about 200 - then, when you're comfortable, you can learn more.
Don't be lazy! Enjoy a challenge, if I can do it, so can you!
我说英文，可是我喜欢学习中文，汉字。学习中文！

So you learn Chinese for fun; still you must find it useful in some way, I think. What do you use it for? Games? Just curious.

I've got an add-on to Firefox that makes possible to read the Chinese ideograms and I can translate for you the words of 孟林& :
"For what reason you don't want to learn Chinese characters"
the next phrase I don't understand, 说 this sign means "to persuade" and doesn't have sense here. Peu importe
" however I like to study Chinese language and Chinese characters"

What does he use it for? Use your mind, man! He can read Chinese characters! He knows what it says when he enters a Chinese restaurant. I, a mere mortal must make up funny words when people ask me what it says:

Honourable Guest: This is not Hambuger palace, please do not ask for ketchup

Foreign Devil, you cannot read this sign.

Paper Tiger, do not try to tell me that you are senior citizen for discount. In my country, only seventy-five year old worker is senior, not you fortysomething lazy guy who retired early because of get rich quick scheme.

No, these are just for jokes. I hope Chinese people will laugh too. I can read some Chinese, but I admit that I have made up stuff when asked to read chinese.

Okay, LOL
I can read the characters for entrance, exit and toilette too, I am just interested in HIS explanation.

>>我说英文，可是我喜欢学习中文，汉字。学习中文！

我還是忍不住提出質疑的，這類猶如賣廣告的話，我也不喜歡，活像是在各大「外國」（也就是不是說中文，很多用戶都不是華人的）論壇賣普通話廣告的典型大陸人。依我這個香港人看來，那真是挺好笑的。

>>I've got an add-on to Firefox that makes possible to read the Chinese ideograms and I can translate for you the words of 孟林& :
"For what reason you don't want to learn Chinese characters"

Who?

>>Paper Tiger, do not try to tell me that you are senior citizen for discount. In my country, only seventy-five year old worker is senior, not you fortysomething lazy guy who retired early because of get rich quick scheme.

紙老虎？

LOL, but I didn't get it. My world knowledge about retirement is: many Chinese retire at 65, and many even younger. It'd be either a blessing or a shame not to retire after 65.

Ketchup...hm, yes, it's quite nice... but since my English isn't good enough, I often have difficulty understanding jokes - and even after close "examination" (reading)... the punchline is there, and it's never fallen flat, but, really, many (typically) British jokes are often seen as really flat in the Chinese mind. Is it a typical style of humour among the Brits, may I ask?

But true, decades after the Qing Dynasty, we still think Latin letters are chicken guts, we still think everyone non-Chinese cannot read "square characters" (nor learn). But unlike the Japanese and Koreans, we form a huge population, with every single province, city or ethnic group like a "state" (like the States, imagine). We might not know enough about foreign things and languages, but people in cities tend to be VERY open about foreign things...just for the sake of differences we "share".

So, there you are, differences tend to be "hurdles", if you regard them, but then it's your own job to get things done. When your grand learning project starts pay off, chances are that a "difficult" one would be far more entertaining.

Exactly, many of my people might be enjoying this, because Chinese is almost like a "single child" with no close relatives (unlike English or French who has a dozen of relatives). Being able to speak foreign is often seen as rather "amazing" because "foreign stuff is often so hard to read and learn" (like Chinese in the foreign mind). We have hardly "any" immigrants, we are rather homogeneous, and we don't (often) bear too many stereotypes in mind that might be common elsewhere (me: I don't think there's any wrong with blond and red hair, for example)...so, definitely, this single child might find it hard to get on her way to the international stage for being so lonely, but it must be a brand-new experience for both speakers of the big I-E family and this single child.

<< But true, decades after the Qing Dynasty, we still think Latin letters are chicken guts >>

Xie, what do you mean by chicken guts???

If you learned Chinese, mac, you could read what Xie really thinks about English and English speakers!

You'd also know that what you wrote about Chinese, basically disregarding their culture and language was none too ___________.

According to Google ^^! Xie said:

I speak English, but I like to learn the Chinese language, Chinese characters. Learn Chinese!

I could not help questioning, such as if selling advertising, I do not like, is in the major活像"foreign" (that is not Chinese, many users are not Chinese) Forum sell advertising Putonghua typical mainland. It seems to me that the people of Hong Kong, then it is a really good laugh.