Chinese language in the United States

[6] Around 2004, over 2 million Americans spoke varieties of Chinese, with Mandarin becoming increasingly common due to immigration from mainland China and to some extent Taiwan.

This phenomenon makes it more difficult to readily identify the relative prevalence of any single Chinese language in the United States.

[citation needed] While approximately 9% of Chinese-born immigrants speak only English at home,[15] this proportion may reach as high as 90% by the third generation living in the United States.

[18] Chinese orthography is also uniquely challenging to acquire fluency in, with each character representing an entire phonosemantic domain, rather than sounds that can be reasoned out piecemeal, as in an alphabet or syllabary.

[21] These desires are often at odds with the attested benefits of bilingualism, including a stronger sense of cultural identity and social norms, lower incidence of behavioral issues, and ability to comfortably navigate both English and Chinese speaking contexts.