Increasing Trend of Learning Chinese, First-ever ‘Chinese Bridge’ Language Competition held in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The first ever “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students was held in Pakistan on Wednesday where nine middle school students participated in Chinese language debate and cultural performance.

A student of Roots Millennium School Flagship Campus Abeeha Shoaib secured the first position, and won a fully-funded plan to visit China to participate in the final round of the competition to be held in Beijing where she will compete with other students winning the competition from the world over.

Pakistani students are developing more and more interest in the Chinese language, and to provide them opportunity to learn the language, many local educational institutes have started Chinese language classes at primary and university level.

Presently, many top-rated universities and schools of the country including the National University of Science and Technology, Comsats University Islamabad and Roots School System are offering Chinese language classes in their curriculum, and over 25,000 students across the country are learning the language in these institutes.

Besides the “Chinese Bridge,” competitions are also frequently held in schools where students actively participate to show their fluency of Chinese language and their love for Chinese culture.

Head of the Chinese Language Department at Roots Millennium Education Mona Kanwal told Xinhua that the commencement of the Chinese proficiency event in Pakistan will encourage more students to learn the language and participate in the event in the future.

She said that in her school system, which has campuses across the country, over 8,000 students are learning Chinese language, and the trend is on rise.

“We started Chinese classes a decade ago, and at that time it was very hard to convince parents to let their kids learn Chinese, but now after the initiation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, more and more students are showing keen interest to learn the language.”