CCTV America – Grace Shao
“There is a huge growth in numbers of non-Chinese heritage people learning Mandarin…In 2010 alone, 750,000 people from around the world took the Official Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK). All these people from different industries, backgrounds are learning in hope to understand the often-misunderstood country better and benefit from knowing the most widely spoken language in the world whether it is for personal reasons or business opportunities…China has over 5000 years of history and has 1.28 billion people, which equates to approximately one fifth of the global population; the significance of knowing Mandarin and understanding China in this world is more obvious than not…“Chinese isn’t the new French, it’s the new English” says Robert Davis, director of the Chinese-language program in Chicago’s public school system, which has 8,000 students studying Mandarin…With growing ties between China and the West, especially massive trading dependencies between China- U.S., China-Australia and China-Germany, the individuals learning this language are gaining a competitive advantage to their degree, differentiating themselves from peers, learning a new communication skill as well as increasing their global business acumen. With the asset of Chinese, they are not only helping themselves in the workforce but also closing gaps between the East and the West as a true citizen of the world.”(more)