Until recently, only a few showed interest in Chinese culture and China. But nowadays the situation has changed so much that in many educational institutions of the United States of America introduced courses of Chinese language (Mandarin Chinese). Many schools believe that learning a foreign language is a component of quality education. Today the main foreign languages taught at several American states, are Spanish and Chinese. And the U.S. Department of Defense has made the Chinese language in the list of the most strategically important languages – along with Arabic, Korean and other languages, knowledge of which is a component of the system security of the United States. Moreover, the Chinese brought in another ‘strategic’ list: it is expected that in the next 30 years the Chinese will become one of the most widely spoken languages in business. Both of these facts and led to the decision that today’s American students is, in addition to Spanish, to pay attention to the study of Chinese language.
Over the past five years, the Chinese language had become one of the most common and popular in the education system. “Learning foreign languages is very important for society ‘, – said Mr. Schofield, who heads one of U.S. college. – ‘Except, perhaps, residents of England, the Americans remain the only industrialized nation on the planet that does not force their children to learn at least one foreign language, not to mention the third, fourth, fifth and even more so in a foreign language.
In terms of participation in the global economy, this, at least, shortsighted. Foreign language skills will future graduates are much more opportunities. ” Today, in various states of America, in addition to the introduction of foreign languages in the curricula institutions of different levels, are special language courses at colleges and universities, and organized summer programs for learning Chinese in China. This summer, a Chinese language school attended by 16 students. In the future we plan to organize a student exchange program, so that American students were able to dip a little longer in the language of China, while Chinese students could improve the English language in America. Unfortunately, despite the established conditions and good opportunities, students continued to show enough interest to study the Chinese language. Teachers hope that could be Olympics 2008, held in Beijing this summer, to somehow rectify the situation. Although there may be a role played by the fact that the Americans are trying to teach the Chinese language is quite ‘adult’ students – 16-18 year olds. While the Chinese language itself, in general, not easy to learn. Therefore, many teachers are inclined to think that learning a foreign language should begin as soon as possible … and already thinking to enter into education system and other popular languages – Japanese and Russian.
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