Broadening Horizons: Why our children should learn Chinese

Written by Graham Watson MEP and published in Western Morning News; Bristol Evening Post on Wed 19th Sep 2007

"We cannot rely solely on English to go about our lives or to go about our daily business"

IN 2000, the Nuffield Languages Inquiry concluded: "English is not enough"; "Young people from the UK are at a growing disadvantage in the recruitment market", "The UK desperately needs more language teachers".

As a qualified interpreter with French, German and Italian and from my vantage point as an MEP in the European Parliament, these are convictions I have long held. In the increasingly interconnected world in which we now live, we cannot rely solely on English to go about our lives or to go about our daily business. But more and more we seem to be shying away from the pursuit of foreign languages, "safe" in the knowledge that 'everyone speaks English.'

Of course there can be no denying that English is a global language, spoken as a mother tongue by nearly 380 million people and by over 600 million as a second language. But English is by no means the world's only widely spoken language. Above ours, there are up to 500 million Spanish speakers in Spain and Latin America and Chinese is spoken by roughly 1. 3 billion - over four times as many native speakers as for our own language.

Yet these statistics are not reflected in our education system, which, despite notable decline in uptake, still places its focus on traditional European languages; French (the world's 17 th language) and German (the world's 10th language) for example. Whereas these languages are the norm in most of our secondary schools and indeed some of our primaries, Chinese provision is still only a preserve for private, independent or in rare cases some enterprising state schools. Despite there being a successful scheme run by the British Council, which brings assistants from mainland China to UK schools, only a two or three specialist language colleges in the South West for instance offer Chinese to their pupils.

But where China was once called a sleeping giant, in 2007 it is the world's fastest growing major economy. China is well and truly awake and we in turn need to wake up to this fact. British exports to China are expected to quadruple by the end of the decade and the government wants every school to be twinned with China as the country asserts itself on the world stage. I have no doubt that China will be tomorrow's superpower and that by giving our children the basics in its language we would serve them well for their future years.

However the reasons for learning Chinese are not just economic. Studies have shown that language learning has a great educational benefit for reading and writing in one's own language. As the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said in 1827: "Whoever is not acquainted with foreign languages knows nothing of his own." Seen like that, learning a language is comparable to a journey of discovery; and with China's rich and diverse history I believe that through its language we can open the door to the understanding more about its past.

As a current student of Mandarin Chinese, I accept that Chinese is a tough language to grasp; harder than French or German. But despite its reputation as a difficult non-native language, the development of Hanyu Pinyin and simplified Chinese characters has made it vastly easier for non-Chinese to begin to learn the language. The first step in many Chinese classes is to teach students how to use pinyin (how to read and pronounce it). Chinese characters are generally the most difficult aspect facing new learners. The number of Chinese characters contained in the Kangxi dictionary (the standard Chinese dictionary during the 18th and 19th Centuries) is approximately 47,035, and although a large number of these are rarely-used, full literacy still requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand characters. The majority of words in all modern varieties of Chinese are polysyllabic and therefore require two or more characters to write. In compensation though, Chinese grammar is considerably easier than that of many other languages.

But as with any language I think the easiest way to learn Chinese is to listen to a native speaker and to be immersed in the culture. This is why I have piloted a scheme which will bring five Chinese speaking assistants from Taiwan to five specialist language colleges in the South West to introduce basic Mandarin for the first time ever. Of the 18 specialist language colleges I wrote to in the region, five have signed up. The schools involved in the scheme - Hayle Community School in Cornwall; Pilton Community College in Barnstaple, Devon; The Sir John Colfox in Bridport, Dorset; Huish Episcopi in Langport, Somerset and the Sir Bernard Lovell, in South Gloucestershire - will this week receive their chinese assistant who will stay at the school for 10 months in an attempt to sow the seeds for Chinese teaching: An opportunity which will give schools a taster in Chinese. We have recruited five young and enthusiastic assistants to come to the South West and I am confident that their passion to teach Chinese language and culture will be infectious for staff and students alike. This is a pilot project, but I sincerely hope we can broaden this scheme so that in years to come, learning Chinese will not just be a preserve for those who can afford it, but something that we offer to all as an everyday subject.

That said, if language skills are to improve here in Britain, everyone needs to play their part. Parents must recognise the importance of foreign languages, encourage their children to take an interest and demand that schools give their children the opportunity to benefit from all that languages have to offer. The general public and the media too must recognise the value of language learning and support it accordingly; and government, local education authorities and schools, must give language learning a firm place in school life and enable as many pupils as possible to benefit from the opportunities it creates.

Whilst we may lag behind our European neighbours on traditional language learning, I believe this country is in an ideal position to take the lead on learning new, global languages such as Chinese. We are a multicultural society and our youngsters are outward looking: just look at the number travelling the world, choosing to see the opportunities not the threats that today's world presents. I look forward to working with schools in the region to ensure that the South West plays an integral role in this.