Dialect in all sense it has its tradition and cultured
value...these days dialect properly has little economics values.
Other than Cantonese due to HK.
So it may perceived that Dialect may not be relevant.
You can always go to Shantou and enter their Teochew
university and learned everything in Teochew but how on Earth
are you going to use dialect in an international
enviornment?
Back in the 30s 40s folks in China uses married
to SEA to establish business network. It was never
about language.
Just like Koreans and japanese, their Univerisity teaches them
using their own languages, and for English, it is a secondary
subject for them. But they still can thrive themselve in the
international market, so are the German, french and Swedish.
English come into our system because of the colonial era, where
British flag was said to see no sunset and alway raising. More
so are the ruler of the country who are english educated, but it
does not mean that without English, you cannot make it to the
international enviroment, Toyota chairman spoke no english, so is
German Daimler Benz boss and french airbus CEOs. Even if they know
english, it is only the basic, and they prefer to speak their own
language so as to protray their own culture and brand, a total
diversion from English.
Look at Canada, which i visited recently for a holiday cum
business meeting, they speak 2 languages, French and English, and
the french communities are doing business as good as the english
communities. And if you are a French Canadian, english will be yr
second language, but they chose to speak french first, if you
cannot understand, then they speak English, and if you still cannot
understand, they may try Singlish to you.
The Russian speak bad english, we call it the Russlish, the like
of Singlish, but they are selling Mig planes and other business
like hot cake to english speaking countries.
In conclusion, i would said english is not a must but a need in
the international enviroment, as especially so in a business
enviroment, if you know different languages of greeting, you
are in and get welcomed.
Hokkien is official language in Taiwan, know as the Min nan Hua,
same as china pu tong hua, Mandarin is used as a common language
for all chinese around the world, and taiwan is no exception, they
use it on media so as to be able to communciate with the world
better, but if you speak Min nan Hua to a taiwanese, you are most
welcome..in taiwan than a english speaking tourist,,,ho bo.