There will soon be 80 Confucius Institutes worldwide, according
to agreements signed on Wednesday by Chinese Language Council
International (CLCI), a government body which coordinates
language-teaching efforts in other countries.
Portugal, Belarus and Serbia will have their first institutes;
and one each in Britain, Germany and Spain will bring the three
countries' total to 14.
The United States and Thailand have the highest number of
institutes 11 each.
Figures from the Ministry of Education show that more than 30
million people are learning Chinese worldwide, and the number is on
the rise, creating an acute demand for teachers.
The rapidly-growing number of Confucius Institutes is to meet
the "huge demand for Chinese learning overseas," State Councillor
Chen Zhili said yesterday in Beijing on the first day of a two-day
Confucius Institute Conference.
The institutes' main responsibilities are to teach Chinese,
train teachers, certify instructors, conduct examinations and
provide consultancy services on Chinese culture, the economy and
society.
"Chinese has become hot in the US during the past one or two
years," said Nancy Jervis, vice president of the New York-based
China Institute, who is in Beijing to attend the conference. Her
organization hosts the earliest Confucius Institute in the US.
She said some parents, brokers on Wall Street, have gone to the
extent of employing Chinese nannies for their children so that they
grow up speaking Chinese and work internationally.
"China's rapid economic growth is the major reason behind the
language fever," she said, adding that the unique culture is also a
big attraction.
The China Institute is also working with New York City and state
officials to teach Chinese in public schools more than 2,400 US
secondary schools have expressed interest but Jervis worries there
would not be enough teachers.
"Currently, there are about 500 Chinese teachers in the US, but
we need at least 5,000," she said.
In response to some US media reports that the institutes are
being set up to export "soft power," Jervis said it is common
practice for countries to set up such institutes to let other
people understand their culture better.
She pointed out as examples the Alliance Francaise and Goethe
Institutes around the world.
(China Daily July 7, 2006)
