The 1st World
Chinese Conference opened in the Great Hall of the People in
Beijing yesterday, attracting Chinese speakers from around the
globe.
Li
Changchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Political
Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, told
participants the government attached importance to the development
of Chinese teaching overseas.
He said it will further increase investment to promote it,
publish more Chinese textbooks, and nurture more teaching staff.
"We will also facilitate the construction of Confucius Institutes
in an effort to provide better services to Chinese language
learners overseas."
"Chinese has become a real international language, and has shown
great practical value," said Joel Bellassen, inspector-general of
Chinese teaching for the French Ministry of Education.
According to him, when the last school year began in 2004, the
number of secondary school students taking Chinese lessons
increased by 22 percent in France. Some areas even witnessed 35
percent growth.
More than 30 million people outside China are learning the
language, and about 2,500 overseas colleges in 100 countries offer
courses.
"Our survey shows there already exists a strong interest in
learning Chinese among high school students in the US," said Gaston
Caperton, president of the US College Board.
In Canada, Chinese has become the third most widely spoken
language after English and French, according to Joseph Caron,
Canadian ambassador to China.
"China has an unshirkable responsibility toward language
teaching overseas," said State Councilor Chen
Zhili, addressing the opening of the conference.
With the development of Chinese in a multicultural world as its
theme, the three-day conference has attracted 342 representatives
from more than 70 countries, as well as 175 delegates from
China.
It will discuss Chinese language development policies around the
world, improvement of the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) and
theories on teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily July 21, 2005)