In my last post, I looked at the language spoken by Chinese people at home. And it was clear that a vast majority of people still speak Cantonese and Mandarin. So is there much of a need for English ministry in Chinese churches?

Have a look at this, which shows the proficiency of spoken English amongst those who speak Cantonese and Mandarin at home (click on the graph for a larger image):

	Cantonese	Mandarin
Very Well	5,703	4,012
Well	4,791	5,552
Not Well	3,500	2,744
Not At All	1,322	796

Interestingly, around 70% of both groups have a proficiency level of "Very Well" or "Well". I'm not sure if this matches up with my own experience with Chinese people, or whether they were overly optimistic in their self assessment. But that's what the data says.

If we break this down into age groups as well, we get this (click on the graph for a larger image):

A few observations and reflections for ministry:

• Overall, there is a larger percentage of Cantonese people who speak English "Very Well" (blue columns), and a larger percentage of Mandarin people who speak English "Well" (red columns).
  
• In the under 35 age bracket, the English proficiency of Cantonese and Mandarin speakers are roughly the same at 85-95% (blue and red columns combined). So ministry amongst this age group can/should still be conducted in English. And in fact that will be the preference for many, especially those who speak English "Very Well" (blue columns).
  
• In the 20-49 age bracket, there is a large percentage of Mandarin speakers who speak English "Well" (red columns) and "Not Well" (green columns). This may be a good group to target for easy English ministry.
  
• Once we go past the age of 45, English proficiency drops below 60%, and continues to drop rapidly in the 60+ age bracket. Because of age and learning ability, the preference will most likely be for their own mother tongue.
  

Here are a bunch of maps to compliment these points (note that the scale for each map is different):

These are the Chinese people that speak English at home (left) and those who speak English "Very Well" and "Well" from both Cantonese and Mandarin background (right). It's pretty spread out, with concentration in a 'T' shape. Those are the areas that is good for doing English ministry.

Here we have people that speak English "Well" and "Not Well" from Cantonese (left) and Mandarin (right) background. The Cantonese map has a bit of a '7' shape, whereas the Mandarin map has more heavily concentrated pockets (note the difference in scale). These are the areas for Cantonese, Mandarin and easy English ministry.

Finally, we have people that speak English "Not Well" and "Not At All" from Cantonese (left) and Mandarin (right) background. The Cantonese map is still a '7' shape, though there is not as many in Rockdale and Kogarah. The Mandarin map is also similar to the one before, but with an addition pocket in Riverwood. These areas we need Cantonese and Mandarin ministry.

One other thing I noticed: it's good to see that the existing churches in the South are in the right areas where Chinese people live. But one area that is a bit lacking is Turrella/Wolli Creek. Chinese people are not there in huge numbers, but there is still a fair few there with no Chinese-specific ministry in the area.

There are other reasons why English ministry amongst Chinese people is important. But I will save that for another time.

Pray for churches with English ministry reaching out to Chinese people that they may think broadly about how to reach all different ages (not just young students) who speak reasonable English. Pray that language will not be a barrier for people to hear the gospel, but that everyone will have a chance to meet Jesus.