Reserve languages

Unless the U.S. becomes a colony of China, the rise of the yuan as a world reserve currency will likely be a gradual process. The same goes for Chinese as a "reserve language." Barring a sudden, major shift in world populations, Chinese will likely grow in importance but remain mainly a national or regional lingua franca. What shouldn't be overlooked, though, is the likelihood that the decline of the almighty dollar as the main reserve currency will be accompanied by a gradual decline in the importance of English. National languages will gain more stature, as will regional languages such as Arabic, Spanish, Russian, French and of course Chinese. Just as those who are fully invested in dollars have suffered large losses, those who have bet everything on English could also take a big hit. It's perhaps not too late to diversify the portfolio by investing more in some national or regional languages.