China sent more than 400 volunteers to teach Mandarin in
Thailand, the largest number of volunteers since China launched its
program to send volunteers abroad to teach the Chinese language,
the overseas edition of People's Daily reported on
Monday.
This is the fourth batch of volunteers sent to Thailand since
China launched the teaching program in 2004.
Last April the Office of Chinese Language Council International
(OCLCI) trained volunteers from six Chinese provinces and 700 have
been selected to teach Mandarin in Thailand, the Philippines and
South Korea.
On May 30, 174 volunteers arrived in the Philippines to begin
their year as teachers of Mandarin.
China has sent more than 2,800 volunteers to teach Mandarin
overseas and 1,500 volunteers are currently teaching Mandarin in 34
countries.
"China is planning to organize more training programs for
volunteers and dispatch more Chinese language teachers overseas to
meet the surging demand for Mandarin learning," Xue Hualing,
director of the OCLCI's volunteer center, was quoted as saying.
According to the Ministry of Education, about 30 million people
outside China are now studying Chinese. It expects the figure will
hit 100 million by 2010. In China the number of foreigners studying
Mandarin has grown from 36,000 ten years ago to 110,000 this
year.
(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2007)
