The Hindu : International : An English season in China

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 12, 2005

International

International

An English season in China

Nirupama Subramanian

Work is on course for the 2008 Olympics; now China wants to get the English right

BEIJING: Thirty-one stadia in the capital here, five in "co-host cities," nine already under construction, and all on schedule for completion by the end of 2007. That is the projection by officials of the 2008 Olympics Committee.

"Some of our senior officials are even saying we should delay the construction because we are so ahead of schedule," said Sun Weide, Deputy Director in the Media and Communication Department of the Beijing Organising Committee of the 29th Olympiad.

But one the organisers have one concern - that there may not be enough English speakers in the predominantly Mandarin-speaking country to cope with the tens of thousands of visitors who are expected to pour into Beijing during the Games. "That is our real headache," Mr. Sun said during an interaction with journalists from South Asia.

Meeting the challenge

But as with everything else, China has decided to meet the challenge head-on. "We have started mobilising the people of Beijing to learn English in time for the Games," Mr. Sun said. The city's municipal authority has set up a Beijing Residents English Speaking Office, whose task it is to promote the language among all those expected to come into contact with international visitors during the Games. That means taxi-drivers, policemen, tour guides, hotel employees, and all other citizens who want to help out at the Games as volunteers.

The newly-set-up office recently held an "English fair" in a huge park in the capital at which people practised English with one another, watched skits in English and visited stalls packed with information on where to learn the language.

There are signs that the drive may be paying off. During a recent weekday rush hour, a taxi-driver studied an English phrasebook as he waited for the lights to change at a busy traffic intersection.

Another rolled out carefully rehearsed phrases for his passenger: "Good afternoon. Welcome to Beijing. How are you today? Where do you like to go?"

Coaching schools

Across China, thousands of English language schools already provide coaching to eager students who see it as a way to further their prospects in China's rapidly developing open-door economy.

The Chinese Government too sees knowledge of English as being essential to its economic ambitions, more so after many international companies began moving to India their back-office operations.

Linked to English

For two decades, schools have taught the language from Grade 3. College degrees are linked to passing an English examination. Even so, most people can barely speak the language and look for opportunities to better their proficiency.

From the provinces, many young people, such as 26-year-old Li Mingyan, who has a college degree in computer science, move to Beijing for the sole purpose of learning the language at one of the big coaching centres. Ms. Li's father, an industrialist in Zhaozhayang city in the eastern province of Shandung, puts up the annual tuition fee of 8000 yuan - about Rs. 44,000 — plus living expenses for his daughter. "English is a necessary tool for a person who wants a good job and a cosmopolitan outlook," she said.

The coming Olympiad has been another trigger for yingwen re, a Mandarin phrase for "English fever." But Olympiad organisers want to make sure that enough people in the capital gain proficiency in it, and not just white-collared professionals or students aspiring for careers in multinationals.

Aiming for fluency

Their goal is to have 10 million fluent English speakers in Beijing - the city has a population of 12.7 million — by the summer of 2008.

When taken as an independent language, as is often done in academic literature, Mandarin has more speakers than any other language in the world.

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