Beijing, 15 Apr (Xinhua) -- Recently, the Irish college entrance examination Chinese was held as scheduled, which is the first time that Ireland has included Chinese in the foreign language selection subjects of the college entrance examination. With the increase in the demand for exchanges between China and foreign countries in various fields, in recent years, some countries have incorporated Chinese into the local college entrance examination subjects or teaching systems. More and more young foreign people are beginning to learn Chinese, hoping to gain better development opportunities by mastering this "skill".
Video loading...
Enter the college entrance examination
In order to adapt to the trend of economic globalization and cultivate more international talents, the Irish Ministry of Education released a foreign language teaching strategy for the next 10 years in 2017. Under this strategy, Ireland will list Chinese as a high school foreign language elective subject from 2020 onwards, and from this year onwards, it will set up a college entrance examination Chinese examination.
According to the college entrance examination schedule released by the Irish National Examination Board, this year's Chinese examination is divided into three parts: speaking, listening and written test, the speaking test will be held from April 9 to 14, and the listening test and written test will be held on June 20.
The form and content of the exam shall be determined by the Irish party. The speaking test lasts 12 to 15 minutes and requires candidates to have daily conversations, a 40-minute listening test, and a two-and-a-half-hour written test that includes reading comprehension and composition.
It is understood that about 100 people across Ireland take the Chinese exam for this year's college entrance examination. Wang Liming, foreign dean of the Confucius Institute at University College Dublin, said that the official Chinese become an Irish college entrance examination subject is an important milestone for Chinese to enter the Irish national education system.
Students at the Confucius Institute at University College Dublin in Ireland discuss in class. (Video screenshot)
In addition to Ireland, Russia, Belarus and other places have also included Chinese in the college entrance examination. In June 2015, the first batch of secondary school graduates in Belarus who chose Chinese as a foreign language subject in the college entrance examination took the university entrance examination that year.
Belarusian Chinese college entrance examination question types include choice, fill-in-the-blank, reading comprehension, etc.
The picture shows the 2020 Belarusian Chinese high school entrance examination questions
Enter the classroom
Like the United States, Germany, New Zealand and other countries, Latin American Cuba has also introduced Chinese curriculum into the secondary school classroom. On March 7 this year, the Sino-Cuban Cooperation Cuban Secondary School Chinese Teaching Project was launched. The Rodriguez Secondary School in Havana, cuba's capital, became the first Cuban secondary school to offer Chinese electives, with more than 130 junior high school students becoming the first Cuban secondary school students to take Chinese courses.
Hou Jiaqi, 26, is the first Chinese teacher selected by the Chinese side to teach at a Cuban secondary school. In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, she said that Cuban students are very enthusiastic about learning Chinese, and currently the school has two Chinese classes every morning, each lasting about 60 minutes. As of the 11th of this month, students have finished learning the rhyme of Hanyu Pinyin.
Chinese teacher Hou Jiaqi (first from left) gives a Chinese lesson to students at Rodriguez Middle School in Havana, Cuba, on March 7. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Joaquin Hernandez)
Ma Hui, Chinese ambassador to Cuba, introduced that the embassy provided textbooks, dictionaries, manuals and teaching aids for Rodriguez Secondary School. Camejo, principal of Rodriguez Secondary School, said more secondary schools in Cuba will join Chinese teaching programs in the coming years.
In Africa, the enthusiasm of local young people to learn Chinese is equally high.
Chinese courses appear in some universities and secondary schools in Rwanda in the form of interest classes or credits. Zeng Guangyu, the Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Rwanda, said in an interview with reporters that since the epidemic, many schools have found Confucius Institutes and hope to open Chinese courses. At present, confucius institutes have a total of 14 teaching points throughout Rwanda, in addition to the regular classes of universities and middle schools, the Confucius Institute of Lu University has also long opened special courses such as martial arts Chinese classes.
The Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana, established in 2013, is also cooperating extensively with local universities, high schools, junior high schools and primary schools in Chinese language education, with 8 teaching sites. Students who study at these teaching points are credited with admission points.
In March 2018, the "Uganda Local Teacher Incubation Project" was launched, with the aim of innovating the training methods of local Chinese teachers, leaving a team of Chinese teachers in Uganda that "cannot be taken away". At the end of the same year, Uganda included Chinese in the curriculum of the lower secondary school. After three years of development, the teacher incubation program has trained three batches of 101 local Chinese teachers. After graduating, the Chinese teachers who received the training have gradually returned to their respective schools and taken up the position of Chinese teaching.
Florence Najijoba, right, a native Chinese teacher, interacts with students in class at Entebbe General Secondary School in Wakiso District, Uganda, on April 5. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Ajara Navada)
At present, there are more than 50 secondary schools in Uganda that offer Chinese courses, and more than 20,000 secondary school students are studying Chinese. The Ugandan Ministry of Education is considering the inclusion of Chinese in upper secondary schools.
New opportunities
Behind the "Chinese fever" is the increase in demand for Economic, Trade and People-to-People Exchanges between China. At Ghana's capital airport, immigration and customs officials interact with Chinese travelers with simple Chinese, a move that is the result of local officials' participation in Chinese language training to better serve Chinese travelers.
For young people, learning well Chinese means that more career opportunities may be available.
Belarus issued an official document in 2005 allowing local primary and secondary schools to make Chinese a compulsory foreign language course, and nearly 37,000 people are currently studying Chinese. After graduating from university, many young people who understand Chinese have devoted themselves to Sino-Belarusian cooperation projects such as the China-Belarus Industrial Park and contributed to the implementation of these projects.
On March 5, 2021, the First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education of Belarus, Starovoytova (right), presented a certificate to the first winner of the Fourth Belarusian University Olympiad Chinese Competition in Minsk. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by RenKov)
Eduard Ghakir, a Rwandan student, said there are many Chinese companies in Rwanda that "if you don't learn Chinese you lose a lot of opportunities."
Andreas O'Ferrin, an Irish student who took the gaokao this year, has been studying Chinese for 10 years. He said that he liked Chinese culture very much and wanted to go to China in the future.
"For the young generation in Ireland, mastering the Chinese language and understanding Chinese culture is not only conducive to promoting exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various fields, but also bringing new opportunities for their career development." Wang Liming, foreign dean of the Confucius Institute at University College Dublin, said. (Reporters: Zhang Qi, Lu Jinbo, Lin Zhaohui, Wang Chao, Ji Li, Huang Wanqing, Xu Zheng, Zhang Gaiping; Reporters: Liu Xiaoming, Lu Jiji, Eugène Uvimana, Seth Accra, Anen Patrick; Editors: Dan Tian; Editors: Tang Zhiqiang, Jin Zheng)
Produced by the International Department of Xinhua News Agency
Produced by Xinhua News Agency's International Communication Integration Platform