Chinese as a foreign language has become an elective favored by more students around the globe. Also, the governments of many countries are paying more attention to Chinese language teaching

Ten years ago, Chinese people would be very surprised to find a foreigner who could speak even a little Chinese. Today, citizens of Beijing and Shanghai regard it as nothing surprising when they see foreigners bargaining with peddlers in fluent Chinese.

Egyptian students display their Chinese calligraphy written for the "Chinese Bridge" contest

Over the past year, Connie Chen has taken her two children to a Chinese school in New Jersey. During the two and half hours of classes, the children study the Chinese language and culture, involving dance, painting, poetry and martial arts. Chen, a Chinese-American, said, "I want my kids to learn and cherish the culture of my Chinese ancestors. It's very important for them to know their own traditions and origins." There are about 20 such schools in the state and more around the country.

A Caucasian American woman with the Chinese name Liu Xinya, who works in advertising, sat for a Chinese proficiency test in New York last October. She developed her interest in Chinese during a visit to Hong Kong a couple of years ago, and was fascinated by the color and vibrancy of Chinese culture. She studied Chinese for several months at the Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU), and taught herself for another four years. She has a unique understanding of the language, and believes the pictographic characters, so different from the alphabetic letters of English, help cultivate different sections of the brain.

Wemer Gelpke, from Germany, made up his mind to study Chinese two weeks after he came to work in Shanghai, stimulated by a frustrating taxi fide. "Just because of the language barrier between the taxi driver and me, it took over one and half hours longer for me to reach my destination," he said. Later, he became a member of the Chinese Language Communications Club, which was created for foreigners living in China. Now, he can communicate his ideas with local residents in simple Chinese.

"Chinese language teaching is growing worldwide," said Yan Meihua, head of the office of the leading panel of the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOCFL).

In recent years, in both the Chinese mainland and around the world, Chinese language study has heated up. Chinese has become increasingly popular among foreigners as China has tightened its ties with the international community and enhanced its position in international affairs, following its accession to the WTO and success in hosting the Informal Summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and the bid for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

More than 2,100 colleges and universities in 85 countries, and numerous high and primary schools and nongovernmental institutions in China's neighboring countries, have opened Chinese language classes with a combined enrollment of nearly 30 million students. China has published Chinese teaching textbooks for learners speaking 18 different languages. Total sales in 2001 reached 200,000 copies, with revenue of more than 5 million yuan or $600,000.

These Ukrainian students major in Chinese language, which is gaining polularity there

In the mainland, more than 300 universities and colleges have set up Chinese language teaching institutes and centers for foreigners, with a total faculty of 5,000. Between 1992 and 2001, the mainland enrolled 410,000 foreign students studying the Chinese language. The number hit 60,000 in 2002, up almost 10 percent over the previous year. Majors have expanded from courses such as Chinese and traditional Chinese medicine to science and technology, economics, management, law and other subjects. This has created a trend of foreign students studying other disciplines in addition to Chinese.

Most foreign students studying Chinese used to come from East and Southeast Asia, including Japan, the ROK, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam, as governments of these countries have attached greater importance to Chinese language study. The situation is changing, however, as a number of countries in North America and Europe are also paying more attention the language.

According to data provided by the Science and Technology Daily, over 700 colleges and universities in the United States, or roughly 20 percent of the nation's total, have started Chinese language classes, with more than 100 having set up Chinese departments. More than 20 secondary and primary schools offer Chinese classes, in addition to 800 weekend Chinese schools. Over 100,000 secondary and primary school students in the United States are studying Chinese, and the number of students studying Chinese has increased faster than any other foreign languages.

On July 31, last year, the Times newspaper reported that the British Government had requested all primary schools in Britain to offer Chinese classes, and had allocated funds for more than 100 primary schools to support the program. The British Government's decision stemmed from the understanding that the Chinese economy, with an annual growth rate of 7 percent, will greatly enhance its global position in the furore. The report said in 2001 there were around 5,600 British secondary school students studying the Chinese language, mostly from families of Chinese origin. The British Government is encouraging more students to study Chinese, hoping to double the number of learners in the next three years. It also plans to increase the number of secondary schools teaching Chinese from the present 40 to more than 200 in the next five years. British diplomats stationed in China have been looking for qualified Chinese teachers for the Chinese teaching program in Britain.

To meet worldwide growing demands to learn Chinese, the NOCFL leading panel has adopted various measures to support Chinese teachers abroad. According to the NOCFL, in the coming year, it will edit and publish Chinese teaching materials in such major foreign languages including English, French, German, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, Spanish and Arabic. It is planning to set up Chinese teaching centers in countries with available conditions to provide various kinds of resources for learners. It will also apply up-to-date research results in language teaching and testing to the improvement of the examination models. Meanwhile, it will further develop international cooperation in long-distance education in a bid to promote distance learning and the modernization of Chinese language teaching.

The NOCFL decided to set up 10 Chinese teaching bases in China in the next five years with the aim of promoting Chinese teaching and establishing a batch of prestigious institutions of Chinese learning through the demonstration role played by these bases. Four such institutions BLCU, Fudan University, Beijing Normal University and Peking University were approved last year to become the first group of teaching bases in the country.

Last year, the NOCFL leading panel sponsored the first Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, entitled "Chinese Bridge," attracting students from 21 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, the ROK, Singapore, Australia and Egypt. The winners were awarded the title of Chinese Language Messenger and a scholarship for studying in China. An official of the organization analogized this activity a "Chinese language Olympics."

Last October, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and the Department of Education of the United States signed a memorandum of understanding on an internet cooperative language teaching project, one of the most substantial cooperative projects undertaken by the two sides since the establishment of Sino-U.S, diplomatic relations. The project will develop a fin-st-rate online English and Chinese teaching and learning system through cooperation between Chinese and American experts, by applying Internet, multimedia, simulation and other advanced technologies. It will provide useful resources for American high school students to learn Chinese and for Chinese middle school students to learn English.

In June 2002, Volume I of the New Practical Chinese, jointly edited by China and Canada, was published. Meanwhile, the NOCFL and Canadians involved in Chinese teaching established the All-Canada Chinese Language Teaching Association. In September. three leading universities in Canada, Toronto University, British Columbia University and McGill University, began using this set of teaching materials. In the French-speaking Quebec Province, the French version of the textbook were adopted. The teaching materials are favored by Chinese teachers in Canada, who regard it as an exemplary pattern for the new model of Chinese language teaching. Not long after the publication of the textbook, relevant institutions in Britain, Spain and other countries also entered into cooperation with NOCFL to compile Chinese teaching materials suited to their respective conditions.