EU backs exchange scheme to teach Europeans Chinese

200 European schoolteachers and 400 headmasters will be sent to China over the next four years to help them improve their language skills and gain a better understanding of Chinese culture.

The so-called ‘EU Window’ project was officially launched yesterday (2 June) by EU Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban and Mr. Zhang Xinsheng, the Chinese vice minister of education. 

The first phase of the China-sponsored project (2009-2010) will involve summer training in China for 50 Chinese language teachers from EU member states and a ten-day study visit to the country for 100 European school headmasters and civil servants working in education. 

The programme is part of a more comprehensive structural dialogue which the European Union and China are devising in the field of education and culture. An initial technical meeting between representatives of the Commission and the Chinese Ministry of Education, which took place last January in Brussels, identified three priority subjects for cooperation: language teaching, joint PhDs and education through sport. 

Commissioner Leonard Orban complimented the Chinese government on the ‘EU Window’ initiative, saying it was “an important step both in encouraging language learning and in fostering intercultural understanding”. The advantages of such exchange programmes, he explained, are manifold: they help raise standards of education and strengthen cultural ties as well as trade links. 

The EU is already China’s number one trading partner but so far the relationship is on something of a one-way street, with the EU’s bilateral trade deficit growing each day and reaching its current value of roughly €160 billion. The idea is that better language skills and understanding of the Chinese culture will help businesses open up new opportunities for themselves on the rapidly expanding Chinese market. 

“Language is the main channel for communication and understanding,” said Chinese Vice Minister of Education Zhang Xinsheng. While 600 European educational professionals will visit China over the next four years, hundreds of Chinese students are taking advantage of mobility programmes such as Erasmus Mundus, learning European languages and getting to know European countries and cultures. 

Mr. Zhang praised the EU’s language policies and its pursuit of harmony in diversity: a goal which could be Confucian, he said. “We have a common philosophical vision” he concluded, “with this project we also start to act together”. 

Mandarin Chinese is nowadays the world’s primary language by number of native speakers (close to 900 million). It is the official language of the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Singapore as well as in international organisations such as the United Nations. Its importance in business, politics and education is increasing as quickly as the booming Chinese economy. 

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