A teacher is instructing a Spanish class with the students in the Spanish immersion program at Gucheng High School in Shijingshan district. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Wang Xinyue, an 18-year-old graduate from Gucheng High School in Shijingshan district, had a different experience than most high school graduates who took gaokao (national college entrance examinations) last month. Instead of English, he sat for a Spanish exam.

Wang studied Spanish language for three years in the Spanish immersion classes at his school. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education for foreign language exams in gaokao, students can choose from six languages - English, Japanese, German, French, Russian and Spanish.

"We have one advantage compared to English test-takers. Some universities will put down the score threshold for students like me through independent recruitment." 

After some research, Wang targeted four untraditional foreign languages from Xi'an International Studies University in Shaanxi Province over English - French, Arabic, Russian and Italian.

In recent years, an increasing number of students are majoring in untraditional foreign languages, and starting learning at a younger age.

Wu Wei, the director of the admission division of Beijing International Studies University (BISU), told Metropolitan that this year, the biggest change on enrollment is opening four new untraditional foreign language programs of study - Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Latvian - with 80 more spots for admission in Beijing.

As the international communication between China and other countries is broadened and becoming more in-depth, more Chinese companies expand overseas, and under the influence of the One Belt, One Road initiative, the demand for talented people that have mastered untraditional foreign languages has grown extensively. 

Rising popularity

The enrollment for untraditional foreign languages began on July 7 in Beijing.

On that evening, the first admission letter from Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) was sent to Zhou Run, a graduate from Beijing No.161 High School. Zhou, scored 646, higher than all the applicants of BLCU, and 63 points higher than the first-tier cutoff line in Beijing. He was admitted into a French major, the Beijing Daily reported on July 7.

Zhou told the Beijing Daily that his dream is to be a French interpreter.

"French is widely used now, so I hope to use French to communicate with more people," Zhou said in the report.

Wu, who is now very busy with admission work, said that compared with other majors, the admission scores for untraditional foreign language are very high.

"Statistics from this year show the scores of applicants are higher than previous years. There are a large number of candidates applying for the four newly-launched languages," said Wu.

Wu said in recent years, more students have a great passion for learning untraditional foreign languages, therefore the competition becomes very fierce. One of the reasons he believes is that most young people born after 1995 are influenced by a more diverse culture.

"More importantly, compared with English which is widely taught in China, there are not many schools teaching untraditoinal foreign languages, especially for less-known languages such as Lao, Polish and Serbian. Yet the demand is great and the job prospects are very good, increasing its popularity."

Wu said the hot majors are French, Spanish and German; among which French was the hottest with an application and enrollment ratio of 32:1 last year.

He further explained that French and Spanish have always been popular, mainly because many countries use the two languages, and graduates have more career choices. As Chinese resource-based companies, such as oil companies, expand their businesses in South America, the graduates in Spanish language courses are greatly coveted. There are also "cold" languages becoming popular as the connections between China and these countries become closer.

For example, this year's newly-launched languages are to cater to the needs for Central and Eastern European languages, he added.

More and more Chinese students learn untraditional foreign languages for better job prospects, a higher possibility of being enrolled in a university in a untraditional foreign language country and learning about new cultures. Photo: IC

Lowering ages, high starting point

Besides university students, younger students are taking on early untraditional foreign language studies.

Wang was one of the 20 members in the Spanish immersion class in Gucheng High School. All the members in his class were selected among junior high school students in Beijing.

Wang said in their class, Spanish is the first foreign language taught, with English being the second. Every week, they have nine Spanish classes. They also have a lot of Spanish-related extracurricular activities.

Wang thinks by starting early in high school, he has a wider choice of universities to become more multilingual. While waiting on the results of Chinese universities, he is also applying for Spanish universities.

Like Gucheng, several other schools in Beijing also have launched early immersion or special classes for Japanese, French and Korean languages, aimed at high school students. Beijing No.21 Middle School, as one of the earliest schools to launch classes of this kind in Beijing, has offered French since 2004 and has seen over 400 graduates, according to the Modern Education News in 2015.

Some language training organizations also open up untraditional foreign language classes to cater to growing needs of younger students.

According to the statistics of Hongyu School, a language training organization in Beijing, students taking untraditional foreign language classes are aged from five to 10, the Beijing-based newspaper The Mirror reported in 2013.

"For the past two years, middle and primary school students have a growing passion for learning untraditional foreign languages like Italian, German, French and Spanish," said Principal Qu Hongtao, quoted by The Mirror.

An anonymous parent told the paper that mastering English is not that advantageous in the job market. If children can lay down a strong base of a second language at a young age, they will have an edge in spoken ability and culture for landing a job both in China and abroad.

Some parents did so to give their children an advantage in studying overseas. Since 2012, going to school in countries with untraditional foreign languages is becoming more popular.

According to the principal of another training school, who was quoted by the report, students going overseas to study in an untraditional foreign language country have a great edge in language, compared with those going to English-speaking countries. If one is proficient in an untraditional foreign language, he or she will be more likely to be enrolled in a top university in that country.

Last year, to cater to the growing need of learning an untraditional foreign language at a younger age, BISU piloted a seven-year, run-through cultivation program for four languages - Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Latvian. The four classes were filled with 80 students selected from junior high schools in Beijing. The program received around 1,280 applications.

"We call them 'little' university students. During the seven years, the first two years will be spent in BISU to learn English, general-knowledge courses, and high school basic courses; one year in a cooperative university in the target country, one year back to BISU, and the last three years again in the target country," said Wu.

He said that in this way, students can put down the burden of preparing for gaokao.

After this year's pilot, they decided to add another four: Romanian, Lithuanian, Estonian and Serbian to cater to the growing needs for people trained in Central and Eastern European languages. 

The driving force of One Belt, One Road initiative

With the execution of One Belt, One Road initiative, there is a growing demand for untraditional foreign language experts.

Wu said that one of the major reasons for launching eight Central and Eastern European languages is that they are major countries in One Belt, One Road initiative.

"The relation between China and these countries are continuously strengthened with increasing communication, especially in economic cooperation, which will greatly increase the need for talented language persons."

He recalled that the officials from some embassies of these countries in China have expressed to him how badly they want  talented language persons. The ambassador from the Embassy of Poland even told him if they are lack in teaching resources, they can help find Polish professors to support the program.

Jason Wang, a 28-year-old graduate of Thai language at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) in 2011, now works as the product manager of a well-known Internet company in Beijing. He thinks that learning Thai gives good prospects for career, especially since China has launched the One Belt, One Road initiative. Thailand is one of the countries that are involved in this initiative, which will further improve the need for Thai talented persons.

"Besides, China's Internet industry has developed at a high pace, so many put their eyes on an overseas market, which creates a great need for people like me," said Jason Wang.

Lan Jianhua, vice director of the employment division of BFSU, said statistics show that the need for untraditional foreign language is very high in target countries under the One Belt, One Road Initiative. For example, this year, they could clearly feel the need for Serbian language increasing.

According to a China Youth Daily report in 2015, the number of official languages covering the countries in the initiative is over 40. However, there are only 20 languages for admissions in universities in China between 2010 and 2013. Besides, the number of students able to be admitted in untraditional foreign language programs belonging to countries involved in the One Belt, One Road initiative is limited, said the report.

"To cater to the growing needs, the school is considering opening up new languages, adding more admissions for the languages and cutting down on others," said Lan. "Our school plans to build a national-level untraditional foreign language development strategic base to cultivate more multi-talent language graduates."