English still a vital tool for developing countries

• Source: Global Times
• [00:55 November 20 2009]
• Comments

Illustration: Liu Rui

By Edward Kofi Turkson

Has China spent too much time learning English?

This question was posed to one of the contestants in the preliminary session of the just-ended CCTV English Speaking Contest.

But it seemed a contradiction to the essence of the competition, which seeks to encourage young people to speak good English and contribute to the government's efforts to make more Chinese students bilingual.

As a journalist, I believe the study of English as a communication tool, and even as an economic weapon, has partly contributed to China's rise since its opening-up to interactions with a world that knows little Chinese.

The learning of English should not be seen as a threat to the survival of Chinese, but as a way of embracing the rest of the world, where a majority speak and communicate through this international lingua franca.

Credit for the country's economic transformation could partly be attributed to the highly educated overseasborn Chinese nationals who after years of studies in Western universities, willingly returned to the mainland to support the government's efforts at its transformational programs.