The British government has started a ￡ 10 million Mandarin Excellence (普通话优秀) Program. The program will have helped over 5,000 British students to be fluent (流利的) in Mandarin Chinese by 2020.
The program is led by local schools and supported (支持) by University College London. So far, 14 schools have taken part in the program. Hundreds of secondary school students in England have taken lessons in Mandarin Chinese. Over the next three years, they will spend eight hours studying Mandarin Chinese every week.
Ned Miller is an officer of the British government. He said a high level of fluency in Mandarin Chinese would become more and more important. "Language skills are important for jobs and life. Mandarin Chinese is spoken by the largest number of people in the world. It is also one of the languages that matters the most to our country's future. If the United Kingdom wants to remain competitive in the world, we do need far more of our young people leaving school with a good command of Mandarin Chinese," Miller added. "We hope that our young people could be given the chance to study the language. We want them to be fluent in both spoken and written Mandarin. The Mandarin Excellence Program will help us do this. It will not only open the students' eyes, but also give them a great advantage when they enter the world of work."
British kids, in fact, are not alone. In America, about 200,000 students are studying Mandarin Chinese. It is believed that 800,000 more will join them over the next couple of years.
