Inside a brightly-lit classroom, around 20 schoolchildren are singing the Chinese national anthem. That song is followed by another tune in Chinese—one typically sung during the Lunar New Year. But this scene is not taking place in a Chinese school but at Lakewood Premier school, thousands of kilometers away in Nairobi (内罗比). Here, schoolchildren are learning Mandarin, a language spoken by nearly 1 billion people almost 8,000 kilometers away from their home. More will join their ranks in 2020 when Mandarin will be officially taught in all Kenyan schools alongside French, Arabic and German, which are already on the curriculum.
Sandra Wanjiru, 13, is one of hundreds of African schoolchildren who are increasingly skilled in the Chinese language. Lakewood Premier School, where Wanjiru studies, has begun the program a year early to give its pupils a head start. "I chose to learn Chinese first not only because it's interesting to learn a foreign language but also because I would want to travel and do business in China," said Wanjiru.
Julius Jwan, CEO of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), told Chinese state—owned Chinese news agency Xinhua: "The place of China in the world economy has also grown to be so strong that Kenya stands to benefit if its citizens can understand Mandarin." China has become increasingly powerful across Africa over the past two decades. Through President Xi Jinping's flagship Belt and Road Initiative, China has loaned money to African countries to build highways, dams, stadiums and airports.
Henry Adramunguni, a specialist at Uganda's National Curriculum (课程) Development Centre, said Mandarin was included in the curriculum because it is one of the United Nations' languages of work." We want to give the opportunity for our young Ugandans to have access to jobs, education and business beyond our borders. That's why we've given them this opportunity to learn Chinese," he said.
D . The language was very easy.
