前所未有的漢語熱：中文成“英國高考”第三大外語科目

Category: A-level課程, 國際課程 Date: 2018年8月23日下午6:27

在很多人印象中，中文曾被視為最難學(xué)的語言之一。但從諸多國家近年逐漸掀起的“漢語熱”來看，學(xué)習(xí)漢語和漢學(xué)儼然成為了新趨勢。素有“英國高考”之稱的A-level考試于本月16日發(fā)榜，據(jù)英國考試委員會最新公布的數(shù)據(jù)，今年報(bào)考漢語的英國學(xué)生人數(shù)首次超過德語，成為“英國高考”第三大外語科目。

The Chinese language might be widely-known as being hard to learn, but tones and logograms are not stopping students from honing their tongues in Mandarin. More British students opted to sit Chinese tests than German in this year's A-level examinations, showing a great curiosity in the ancient Asian language amid a growing disinterest in foreign languages.

This is the first time that Mandarin Chinese has overtaken German at A-levels, a British public exam taken by high school students, making it the third most popular language in the UK.

據(jù)英國廣播公司中文網(wǎng)報(bào)道，今年的A-Level考試，有3334名考生選擇漢語為考試科目，和去年相比增長8.6%。法語仍是最受歡迎的第一外語，排名第二的是西班牙語。但是與去年相比，選擇這兩門語言作為A-level考試科目的學(xué)生數(shù)量都呈下降趨勢，德語排在第五。

A total of 3,334 candidates chose Mandarin as their foreign language, up 8.6 percent from 2017, while around 3,058 sat A-level German, down 16.5 percent year-on-year.

French and Spanish still remain the most popular foreign languages, but the former slipped by eight percent to 8,713 this year, while the latter decreased by four percent to 8,255, according to The Telegraph.

The German language is followed by Russian and Polish.

A foreign student learns calligraphy from a Chinese middle school student in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

近年來，隨著中國的經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展，漢語比德語更受歡迎。年輕人也會思考到底什么語言在將來會更實(shí)用。

Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council (ISC) said that due to the economic power of Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, students were encouraged to study German, but now China has emerged as the world’s fastest growing economy.

2017年一項(xiàng)針對一千多名未成年學(xué)生家長的調(diào)查顯示，在英國家長心目中，漢語是印歐語系之外最重要的語言。一半以上的家長認(rèn)為，學(xué)習(xí)漢語不僅僅可以幫助學(xué)生了解東方文化，更有助于未來事業(yè)的發(fā)展。根據(jù)中國國家漢辦粗略估算，目前中國（含港澳臺）之外，全球?qū)W習(xí)使用漢語的人數(shù)已經(jīng)超過1億，其中包括6000萬海外華人華僑，以及4000萬各國主流社會的學(xué)習(xí)和使用者。

Chinese language and culture have been accessible to students around the world thanks to the spread of Confucius Institutes.

According to the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), as of 2017, some 100 million people, excluding native speakers, use Chinese globally, while Chinese teaching centers have surpassed 70,000.

Candidates take part in a HSK test

中文也逐漸成為韓國人從小學(xué)習(xí)的語言。在韓國，以中文和英語進(jìn)行雙語教學(xué)的私立幼兒園以及單以中文教學(xué)的私立幼兒園每年都在增加。很多私立小學(xué)也把中文列為學(xué)校的必修課。

South Korea has the largest population of Chinese language learners in the world with the number estimated at around 10.6 million. Last year alone, over 170,000 people signed up for Chinese language tests, like the HSK, a Chinese proficiency test.

2010年，聯(lián)合國新聞部宣布啟動(dòng)聯(lián)合國語言日，旨在慶賀多種語言的使用和文化多樣性，并促進(jìn)6種官方語言在聯(lián)合國的平等使用。其中，新聞部將中文日定在了農(nóng)歷二十四節(jié)氣之“谷雨”，以紀(jì)念“中華文字始祖”倉頡創(chuàng)造漢文字。而在聯(lián)合國設(shè)立中文日之后，許多國家紛紛開始了學(xué)習(xí)中文的熱潮。

The United Nations (UN) in 2010 suggested a Chinese Language Day which falls on April 20 each year to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote the equal use of all official languages.