The Chinese are the largest single ethic grouping in the world, so a form of Chinese is spoken by more people than any other language. Chinese is also the world's oldest language, its written records stretching back about 3500 years.

The term 'Mandarin' or 'Mandarin Chinese' was referred to the language spoken by the officials or 'mandarins' at the northern dialect. It is spoken by over 70% of Chinese or Han people, and has become the lingua franca for the whole of china. This national language is known in China as putonghua 'common speech', which is now sometimes referred to in the West as Modern Standard Chinese, although the term Mandarin still lingers on.

Putonghua is taught in schools and used in universities and colleges all over China. The majority of TV and radio programs as well as films for the cinema are also made in putonghua.

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