Re: One-third of Chinese do not speak Putonghua, says Education Minist
All your TV program are run with Pictograph subtitles because there is nothing called a single Chinese language. Mandarin is a proper language based on Putonghua.
All programs? I'm not sure u watch Chinese often. Aren't u an Indian? If that's true, it's very thoughtful of TV channels to do so for a wider range of viewers. It's like in Bollywood movies some English pops up from time to time in a weird accent as if those Indians were unable to consistently express themselves in their mother tongues. In that case subtitles are indeed helpful even for indigenous Indians of whom only around 10% reportedly understand English, needless to mention such a variety of Assamese, Bengali, Telugu blah blah.
Language or dialect, it takes linguistic expertise to tell them apart, beyond laymen's comprehension. So let linguists to research and debate them out.
And in history it's natural and common for empires to spread their languages to backward uncivilized areas conquered along with which their superior cultures also prevailed. Therefore today English, Spanish, and French, languages of colonial powers still dominate the world. Indians shall be grateful of the great uplifting by English which now link u together and enable u to keep pace with the globalization.
