In recent years, the popularity of the Chinese language has
gained momentum in line with the international community's growing
concerns about China. Many countries and regions have established
Chinese language courses at higher education institutions and
secondary schools. More and more students are choosing China as the
destination for their overseas study.
According to the China Scholarship Council, in 1991 there were
only 11,000 foreign students studying in China. In 2000 the number
increased to 20,000. In 2005, 140,000 overseas students chose to
study in China. This year there are more than 160,000 students
studying in China.
To meet the needs of students learning Chinese around the world,
the Office of the International Chinese Language Council has
established 111 Confucius Institutes or Confucius Classrooms across
the world. In the past, it was easy enough to find Chinese
restaurants wherever we went in the world. Now, we can expect to
hear people say hello to us in Chinese. More and more people are
interested in China and want to learn the Chinese language. To
accommodate this new trend, domestic Chinese language teaching has
quickly shifted its focus from home to overseas.
China started to teach Chinese as a foreign language more than
50 years ago. During those 50 years, it has gained valuable
experience in Chinese language teaching and published a large
number of books and research materials related to it. This has laid
a very solid foundation for the promotion of the Chinese language
in the international community. In fact, it was not anticipated
that the Chinese language would become so popular within such a
short period of time. Tremendous changes have caused a shift in
attitude. Some people are excited, believing that the era of China
is coming. Some are delighted, happy about China's increasingly
important international status. Some are anxious, because Chinese
is still not widely spoken in the international arena. Others are
impatient, hoping to teach millions of people to speak Chinese
within several years. In any case, no one is indifferent.
The situation must be addressed rationally. In 2000 when the
number of foreign students studying in the United States exceeded
500,000, many more people opted to study English as a foreign
language rather than Chinese. France, Germany, Japan, Spain and
other developed countries were also trying to promote their
national languages. How can we maintain the momentum of the
popularity of the Chinese language? How can we ensure a sustainable
outreach of Chinese language across the world? We need to think
about it carefully.
To be able to ask that Chinese be spoken as one of the world's
international languages, like French and English, we still have
many things to do. Behind the language is a rich and diverse
culture. It is here that the charm of the Chinese language lies,
but also the difficulty of learning it. Promoting the Chinese
language and the Chinese culture is the duty of our generation.
That non-native speakers might learn to speak elegant and standard
Chinese is by no means an unrealistic dream. In some kindergartens
in the United States, children have started learning Chinese. Many
primary and secondary schools also offer Chinese language courses.
In some parts of East Asia, Chinese has become a regional language.
To meet the changes, we should improve our Chinese language
teaching courses and corresponding research. We need to train more
teachers, publish more up-to-date teaching materials and books, and
introduce a more modern teaching method.
The author Cui Xiliang is President of Beijing Language and
Culture University.
(People's Daily November 10, 2006)