Putonghua enough to handle country's business boom

Putonghua enough to handle country's business boom

Global Times | February 23, 2012 19:35
By Yuan Hui

Is it necessary for the Chinese to acquire a second foreign language, in a bid to communicate with the world? This is probably an idea mostly held by Europeans. For people living in other parts of the world, it's already a big headache to use English.

Certainly, it's not that the Europeans are linguistic geniuses, but that they have to learn a third language since Europe is too crowded.

In order to see market growth, products have to be sold to several countries. The back of every product is printed in four to seven languages, including Turkish. In order to have a good career, one usually needs the experience of studying abroad. Thus European university towns are filled with exchange students from the enormous Erasmus Program.

Even enjoying leisure may call for a foreign language, because traveling a little bit far means going abroad. So Europeans need a second language.

But for the Chinese, a second foreign language is not that important. Like the US, China has an enormous, unified territory and market. Using just Putonghua, one can find enough working opportunities, and enjoy rich entertainment and personal life.

Learning English, not to mention a second foreign language, already seems a waste - many Chinese have spent more than 10 years in learning English since elementary school, but haven't spoken a single word to a foreigner.

Here I have to mention a misconception of Westerners - that Chinese must learn a foreign language to hold exchanges with other cultures. This only applied when China is economically weak.

The US, with a strong economy, has also become a big cultural melting pot, despite Americans' stereotypically poor language skills.

As a result, as China's enormous economy and market attract migrants and goods from various countries, I'm afraid foreigners will have to learn Putonghua in order to communicate in this country.

Admittedly, due to further globalization, Chinese need to take more languages to communicate with the world. In the future, the Chinese will realize that the world is much more diversified and that going abroad is more than going West, and therefore, they need other languages besides English.

But I have to point out that in China, the teaching and learning of foreign languages other than English has already become very systematic and marketized. Each university has its foreign language school, and in big cities there are educational institutions like the Alliance Francaise and the Goethe-Institut.

In big cities, international schools and foreign language schools have been run for decades, and there are numerous cooperation programs with foreign universities. There are also private education organizations, like New Oriental which teaches not only English, but other second languages based on market needs. As long as there is market demand for any language, even dead ones, China's enormous education system can catch up within a decade.

After all, the popularity of a language depends on the economic and cultural elements behind it. In the future, it's possible that Chinese students will have to learn other languages since very early on, like their European counterparts.

In order to study abroad, seek a better career or emigrate, the Chinese may need to learn a second language through various professional education organizations which are vigorously developing in China. But if they don't want to go anywhere and just stay at home, I believe they'll get used to hearing Putonghua with all kinds of foreign accents.