The Ministry of Education of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced recently that it will begin Chinese classes in 100 schools next year, as well as rolling out further measures to encourage students to learn the language.
Chuang Haiou, founder of the Dubai Chinese Language Institute, told reporters from Gulf News that there were 100 UAE students learning Mandarin during the first half of 2018, compared to 60 students in 2017.
As for the phenomenon that Mandarin is fast gaining popularity as a subject across UAE schools and institutes, Chuang believes that Chinese President Xi Jinping’shistorical visit to the country on July 19 and 20 provided a significant momentum boost.
“One of the main reasons that more people in the UAE are choosing to learn Chinese is that they believe the China-UAE relationship is quite important,” she said.
Last year, ten government schools in the UAE offered Chinese as an additional language.
Currently, more than 1.2 billion people around the world speak Chinese, making it the most popular spoken language in the world, followed by Spanish and English.
The finals of the 17th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students will be held on August 4 in Changsha, Hunan Province. 134 students from 108 countries took part in the first round of the competition, but this year's final will be contested by five students from the US, Russia, Australia, Indonesia and Nigeria.
Source from gbtimes