With the demand for Chinese language courses surging worldwide, a record 1,000 primary and middle school principals will visit China next week to build contacts, sources with the Office of Chinese Language Council International said on Wednesday.

Office Director Xu Lin said the 1,000 delegates from the United States and the Republic of Korea would visit 18 Chinese provinces and cities, talk with Chinese counterparts and sign teacher exchange agreements.

"The huge demand for Chinese courses overseas poses challenges and opportunities," said Xu.

Statistics from the US-based Society of Modern Language Research show that the number of primary and middle school students learning Chinese in the United States increased from 33,000 in 2002 to 50,000 in 2006. The number of college students learning Chinese also leapt by about 50 percent, increasing from 24,000 to 35,000.

Xu said weekend Chinese classes in the United States run by American Chinese had attracted thousands of people.

"However, Chinese is still outpaced by French, Spanish, German and Latin in the United States," Xu said.

Statistics show that 70 percent of foreign language learners in the United States choose to learn Spanish, 20 percent learn French, six percent learn German and three percent learn Latin.

Xu pointed out that the Office supported Chinese language courses overseas. Last year, China sent 1,004 Chinese teachers to 80 countries and 1,050 volunteers to 34 countries.

Xu said that China would encourage the use of diversified teaching materials for different countries.

"We will write and publish a teaching guideline, to which teachers can contribute in order to enrich the content," Xu stressed.

Prior to this, the Office of Chinese Language Council International had sponsored the visit of 400 U.S. headmasters and 110 British headmasters, most of whom signed agreements with Chinese counterparts.

"Following the tide of university-level cooperation, more primary and middle schools have become interested in offering Chinese language courses," Xu said.

The Office says that 30 million people are learning Chinese the world over, but predicts the figure will hit 100 million by 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2007)