Infrequent Nights

The People Daily online reports that there isn't enough progress being made towards training the five million Chinese teachers that are needed worldwide. Well actually, the article claims both four and five million are needed. I'm not sure which number to believe. To be honest I don't buy either of them. It estimates there will be 100 million Chinese as a second langauge (CSL) students by 2010. That number seems absurdly high to me. While I've no doubt Chinese study is becoming increasingly popular, I'll be skeptical of the 100 million students figure until I seem some evidence and understand how they estimated it.

Nonetheless the article demonstrates just how serious the PRC is about CSL. They're naturally anxious to have as many Chinese speakers worldwide as possible, and they seem to be actively encouraging the study via a number of initiatives including funding their 'Confucsius Institutes' as well as training scads of teachers and publishing copious study materials.