Interest in learning Chinese grows in LatAm: experts

With more than 100,000 people in Latin America and the Caribbean currently learning Chinese, the interest in the Chinese language is clearly increasing in the region.

"Many believe that Chinese is the language of the future, so if one can master the language, there will be more opportunities available to that person in the future," Sun Xintang, deputy director of the Regional Center of Confucius Institutes for Latin America (CRICAL), told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The trade links that China have established with various countries in the region, such as Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, are the main factors behind the mushrooming interest in the language, said Sun.

The first Confucius Institute in Latin America opened a decade ago, and today, there are already 35 in 15 countries in the region, with another two planned for the beginning of 2017 in Uruguay and Venezuela, said Sun.

Last year, CRICAL teachers taught a total of 55,000 students Chinese language and culture, but Sun estimates the overall number of Chinese-language learners in Latin America is probably double that.

"Surely (the number of students) exceeds 100,000, because the Confucius Institutes only represent a part of Chinese-language learning. In Mexico, there are five Confucius Institutes, but the Chinese language is being taught at over 30 universities," said Sun.

In response to a growing demand for Chinese-language lessons, academics from the region and the United States met last week at Mexico City's prestigious Colegio de Mexico, to exchange experiences and discuss how to improve teaching skills.

The Third International Congress for Teaching Chinese held in March 8 to March 10 was designed to address the growing demand, said Liljana Arsovska, an academic at the Colegio de Mexico's Asia and Africa Study Center and one of the organizers of the event. Previous editions of the congress were held in 2012 and 2014.

Arsovska said that in Mexico alone, currently around 5,000 students are learning Chinese, noting that number was much smaller just 15 years ago.

"It is interest coupled with necessity, because Mexico and China have good relations in many aspects and trade (between the two countries) keeps getting stronger," said Arsovska.

"There is still a lack of people here who know Chinese and can translate it. Few people can use it as a language in negotiation and really know China as a real partner," Arsovska added. Endi