Archives of Peking University News - PKU English - 北京大学

北京大学英语新闻网/Peking University News
China Reading Weekly: What do you think of the status and role of foreign languages
other than English in our language education and life?
Li Yuming: Dominance by single foreign language is one of the big problems of
foreign language education in China. Studying English alone, we would lose half of
the world, or even most of the world, which is a dangerous thing really. Some major
languages in the world, such as French, Russian, Spanish and Arabic, etc, are called
in China ―minor languages‖ by some people, and the very name of which shows the
problems concerning the options of languages in foreign language education. The
aim of Chinese learning foreign languages is mainly to learn the advanced science
and technology of the West, which can be categorized as ―absorption‖. Actually we
should also predict other functions of foreign languages in China.
We should not look completely to market for foreign language education. The market
could be taken as a lever for such foreign languages with great social demand, while
so-called ―minor languages‖, which the state needs talent backup, should be
regulated by the state policy. We are glad to see that, in recent years, the status of
so-called ―minor languages‖ has been lifted together with its increasing demand from
the market. A lot of majors of ―minor languages‖ have been set up in many
universities. However, the setting of those majors is not very rational and lacks
planning. China needs scientific ―planning for the options of foreign language
education‖.
China Reading Weekly: What change has occurred in the international status of
Chinese? What are its current situation and its future development?
Li Yuming: The international status of Chinese has been lifted by a great margin
since the end of the last century and early this century, especially during the several
years of this century, when China becomes a huge market of the world and an
important country to provide job opportunities and development chances to the
world. The global emergence of the Chinese language learning is a result more of
economy than culture. It is a rule that a powerful nation would have a powerful
language whereas a powerful language would generate a powerful nation.
Faced with this Chinese fever, we should keep sober. Most-studied foreign
languages are still such major languages in the West like English. Compared with
them, Chinese stands at only a very small percentage. The Chinese is going global
with olive branches. In order to meet the need of the people around the world for the
learning of Chinese, we Chinese have the duty and responsibility to help them. The
spread of Chinese in the world should be realized mainly through non-governmental
channels and in ways willingly accepted by foreigners, just like the spring rain ―which
moistens everything in silence‖. If the international demand of learning Chinese
increases, more Chinese language resources such as Chinese teachers, teaching
materials, dictionaries and Chinese websites would be needed, then the Chinese
555