The Ottawa Citizen – Daniel Fried
“Is Chinese only for the Chinese? Many Canadians assume so: surveys show that only a minority could imagine classes in Mandarin (the standard dialect of Chinese for business and public uses) as deserving of a place in their local public school system. This is understandable: unlike French and English, Chinese has historically been spoken only by one specific ethnic group. But with the rise of China, and the corresponding rapid growth of Chinese language education around the world, it would be a mistake to continue to view this as the language of one ethnicity only: it is becoming a world language, and Canada must adapt. Strangely, attitudes toward Chinese language are sharply divided by political affiliation. As part of its annual survey of Albertans’ attitudes toward China, released last month, the China Institute of the University of Alberta found that 62 per cent of NDP supporters, and 48 per cent of Liberals, but only 35 per cent of Tories agreed with the statement, “The ability to speak Chinese will become more important to Albertans.” Such polarization could not come at a worse time. Almost unreported outside of China, the Chinese government has been moving swiftly to reduce the amount of emphasis given to English language education in its own schools. University departments of English are being closed, and English will be removed from the all-important college entrance exams by 2017; it seems certain that within a generation, there will be far fewer speakers of English in China than there are now. More and more, businesses and nations that wish to engage with China will need to do so in Chinese.”(more)