Will Egyptian students soon be learning Chinese? Mustafa El-Menshawy finds out Chinese looks to soon be available as a secondary lan2 1/2children. Cairo and Beijing signed a protocol to that effect on 10 October. According to the agreement, within two years, schoolchildren will be able to choose Chinese as a second foreign language in all public and private schools. The goal is to enhance linguistic diversity, and accommodate the requirements for furthering economic and trade ties with Beijing. "When the number of Egyptians speaking Chinese increases, we hope that would consequently boost our economic and cultural cooperation with Cairo, and lure more Chinese investors into pumping their money here," Han Tia of the Chinese Embassy in Cairo's Education Section told Al-Ahram Weekly. Han was speaking after Education Minister Ahmed Gamaleddin Moussa and Chinese Deputy Education Minister Wan Kue inked the protocol in a highly publicised ceremony. A delegation of Chinese education experts is expected to visit Cairo in the near future to discuss the details of the plan. Chinese is an uncommon and difficult language to learn. First year secondary school student Mahmoud Sayed, for one, said he was just not interested. "I would rather study French, a more common and easier to learn subject in which I could get high grades." Braced for just such an attitude, the Chinese Embassy in Cairo is promising tremendous incentives to lure students into choosing Chinese as their second language. Annual scholarships to China will be offered, and schools are being provided with sophisticated equipment and labs. Whereas English will remain compulsory, Chinese will join French, German, Italian and Spanish as a potential second language for students to learn. Linguists think the prospective for closer, wide-ranging ties between nations rests with a narrowing of the language gap. "Historically speaking, language predominance and economic influence" are closely tied, said Khaled Bahaa, a linguist with a PhD in language acquisition. "China is the fastest growing economy in the world." As such, Bahaa expected the language to be popular with students. He referred to a February report by prominent British language expert David Graddol, who said the idea of English being a solitary universal language was outdated; Graddol said that by 2050, Chinese would continue its predominance as the most common native tongue in the world. Including Chinese in preparatory and secondary school curricula also seems to be part of a wider plan aimed at teaching the language in higher education institutions as well. In October, a new Chinese language department at Cairo University opened up, to add to four other university departments teaching Chinese across the country. At the new Cairo University department, 25 students were anxiously delving into the language. "Look at the products in our markets; most of them are all labelled 'Made in China'," said Aya Soliman, who hoped her knowledge of Chinese would help her obtain a lucrative job after graduation. Soad Salama, the lecturer, said that most Chinese language graduates do indeed get well-paid jobs. She said the demand for their expertise far exceeded the 400 or so Chinese language graduates across the country every year. Egyptians are not alone in this respect. The Scottish government recently announced plans to develop crash courses in Mandarin, the official Chinese language, for students, academics and business people -- in order to promote stronger links with Beijing. Chinese is also a second language in the schools of Singapore, South Korea and Japan. "China has enjoyed breathtaking economic growth in the past two decades," reports the embassy's website. "As its economic and political clout grows, the Chinese language has also proved increasingly popular among students of other countries." Bilateral trade between Egypt and China hit the $1.014 billion mark in the first eight months of this year. That volume currently pits $878 million in Chinese exports against $136 million in Egyptian. Cairo is hoping that when more Egyptians learn Chinese, that balance might even out a bit.
