A Beginners Guide to Learning Chinese
For many years now, the world has been insisting
that everyone should speak English. But across the
world, countries have provided their young with
initiatives to learn other languages also. Yet in
recent months, Americans have now come to realize
that there is now a need for people to able to
speak languages that are more specialized.
Certainly the fact is that one language which many
schools are now considering including within their
curriculums, not just in the USA, but around the
world is Chinese.
Presently, 1.3 billion people speak Chinese around
the world, and of this, 885 million speak Mandarin
(the official language of China), which also
happens to be the most dominant dialect. Currently
in the USA, only 24,000 students (Grades 7 through
to 12) are actually studying this language, but
their numbers are steadily growing.
However, the biggest problem that many educators in
the US are facing when it comes to expanding their
Chinese programs, is finding people who are
actually qualified to teach it. There are only a
few Universities in the USA which offer programs to
allow people to train and gain their teachers
certification in teaching the Chinese language.
One University (George Mason) included a program
which would allow people to gain their teachers
certificate for teaching Mandarin, and a total of 2
people enrolled on the course. This is where
exchange courses come in useful, and are very
critical to helping ensure that this language,
along with Arabic, can be taught in US schools.