China launched a website, www.linese.com, on Saturday to offer
learning courses of Mandarin Chinese online to meet the surging
demand of Chinese learning around the world.
Sponsored by China's National Office for Teaching Chinese as a
Foreign Language (NOCFL), the website aims to offer online
learning, training, volunteer help, search services and various
learning resources.
"The website features multimedia technologies including online
interactive courses, virtual communities, blogs and pod casts,"
said Zheng Zhongxiu who is in charge of the website.
If users log onto the website, they enter a virtual community
set in a traditional Beijing residential courtyard where registered
users can communicate with each other and learn Chinese through the
specially designed games.
Statistics from the Ministry of Education show more than 30
million people worldwide are learning Chinese and more than 2,500
universities in 100 countries and regions offer Chinese
courses.
"With an increasing number of foreigners studying Chinese in
their own country, traditional classroom instructions alone cannot
cope with the huge demand," China's Education Minister Zhou Ji said
at the Confucius Institute Conference which concluded Friday.
"This requires modern information technology and multimedia
online instructions to be used more extensively to meet the
learning demand," he said.
The website also links to scores of overseas Confucius
institutes which specialize in promoting Chinese learning and
Chinese culture, according to Zheng.
"The website is currently available in Chinese and English, but
our staff are working on the Korean and Japanese versions," Zheng
said, adding that they will develop more varied versions to
facilitate users with different backgrounds.
Xu Jialu, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said the website is
an important platform for learning Mandarin and showcasing Chinese
culture.
He said it should build itself to be the world's most important
Mandarin learning website and provide comprehensive services for
people all over the world who want to learn Mandarin.
(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2006)