"I am Zhang Ziye. I am four this year. I am in a kindergarten in Changzhou City, Hebei Province."
The little child was introducing himself at an English contest along with nearly 100 young children from kindergartens across the province.
Over 400 kindergartens in Hebei have opened English courses for kids.
The kindergarten attached to the Foreign Languages School in Shijiazhuang City, the provincial capital, employs foreign teachers to teach English.
"Since my daughter entered the kindergarten a year ago, her English has been much improved," said the mother of five-year-old Li Xin.
The school tries to make learning English fun by teaching the young children in a flexible way, and taking their personalities into consideration, according to a teacher.
Local authorities have held training courses for more than 700 English teachers in the province to improve their teaching skills.
(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2002)
