Illustration: Liu Rui
The arrival of China on the world stage in the last two decades has been met with both economic glee and political worry. A major facet of this arrival has been the upswing in Putonghua language courses around the world. Even some kindergartens in the US and Europe are getting busy organizing Putonghua language lessons for toddlers, as parents do not want to miss any opportunity to give their children a better chance in life.
In return, Chinese education long ago zeroed on the need for its students to learn English. For years, middle schools across China have recruited teachers from around the English-speaking world. A few years ago, the industry was in danger of becoming a caricature as schools plumped for any native English speakers, regardless of qualifications, experience or character. However, as schools wised up and began insisting on higher-quality recruits, another gap has been exposed in the Chinese education system: the relative lack of students studying languages other than English.
Certainly, there are options in existence. Universities such as Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Dalian University of Foreign Languages offer a wide range of majors, and the Alliance Francaise and the Instituto Cervantes are both present in Beijing. However, in seven years in China, I have met alarmingly few people who could fluently speak a foreign language other than English.
This may well be a by-product of China's own depiction of its rise. The US is seen as a target, to be admired, competed with and aimed for in equal measure. Much has been made of universities in the US, the UK or Australia struggling to cope with the massive demand for places by Chinese students.
Ultimately, they will be unable to meet it as millions of Chinese people enter higher education.
Beyond this, China is seeking to forge ties with every corner of the world. It is part of the BRICS with Russia, Brazil and India. It is pressuring France and Germany to lower the EU arms embargo. It is signing trade and mining deals with governments across Africa and South America.
Already, tens of thousands have moved from China to work overseas, or to cater to growing diasporas. Reports are piling up of clashes between Chinese management and local employees. Training a generation of young Chinese to view multilingualism as essential for a successful international career is vital to solving these problems.
Wei Jiafu, the CEO of China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO), told me recently that his company aims to have as few Chinese executives as possible in its operations abroad to allow subsidiaries to grow as local companies wherever they are based. Part of this is also due to a lack of young executives with the cultural and linguistic skills needed to fulfill these roles.
The world will not solely be governed by the Sino-US relationship. Bilateral ties between a wide range of countries such as Brazil and Indonesia, or Mexico and South Africa, will take on a weightier role in global trade and economics.
While this may not seem like a priority for most Chinese schools at the moment, it is crucial for larger Chinese cities and more universities to develop foreign language programs.
This is not merely to add a dimension to their students' future careers, but also to allow China to fully integrate a 21st-century world it hopes to help lead.
The author is an editor with Global Times. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
Putonghua enough to handle country's business boom