I think what I found most interesting about this speech was the discussion about the linguistic challenges. In the United States we only speak English and there are no separate dialects, Sue there are southern accents, New Jersey accents, and etc., but for the most part if you speak english in the United States anyone will be able to understand you just fine. This is not the case in China, I have been lead to believe up until taking this class that Mandarin was main dialect  in China and that pretty much anyone will be able to understand you if you are speaking Mandarin, but this is also false. Over half the population has there own local dialect, and in most cases it  is completely different. He bought up the story with food, how he was forced to call his favorite food by a different name and that numbed the memories he had because he didn’t associate the memories he had by the new name. Besides for making it difficult to understand, it seems the  communication barrier would make every city seem separate as if  it were its own country. I would question whether it  is possible to be truly unified without all being able to understand each other, or speaking the same dialect. Another really good point about  language is just simple translations are not always effective. Dr. Gengsong Gao brought up the word democracy, to us democracy represent freedom, choice, liberty, and all the other principles America prides themselves on. On the other hand, he mentions a local dialect where  democracy means the opposite of what it means to Americans. So, when in China and globally, when people discuss how China should become a democratic country they are highly opposed to this, but it is not  because they oppose democracy they oppose the concepts the word means to them. This leads me to believe that the CCP perhaps has the right idea to making the national language Mandarin and leaning towards that is the language that should be taught in all school in China. On the other hand, it  seems like that is to oppressive . I try and put my shoes of someone who lives in a small village with  our own local dialect and I  know I would not want  the government  telling me I am banned from speaking my language ( not saying this is hat they do); it seems that there probably would  be no reason for me to learn Mandarin because everyone I know and need to associate with understands me.

One major question I have about this is, lets say I speak Mandarin and I call a business that has there own local dialect, would they even really be able to understand me, or is this a barrier that makes a daily interaction difficult?