Chinese lingual & cultural education officially enter US major schools for national education

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Chinese lingual & cultural education officially enter US major schools for national education

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Prior to Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier's visit to the US, the Sino-US two sides announced on Dec.5 to officially set off in the USA the "preparatory course and exam of collegiate Chinese and Chinese culture", Advanced Placement Program of Chinese (AP Chinese). This marks that the Chinese lingual and cultural education began to enter the US major schools for the education of the US nationals.

The US high-school students may get their scores or skipping a grade by taking part in the study course organized by the US College Board. And the scores obtained can be brought into the college or university while those students who passed the exam will attain the 3rd grade in Chinese learning in the US universities. According to the US program, 2006 will see the first course of Chinese learning opened and 2007 the first exam made in the USA. The US College Board will make Chinese Putonghua the criteria for Chinese AP examination.

Before this the US College Board only opened the AP program for French, German, Spanish and Italian. As the learning of Chinese by students in the US high school is not recognized in the US universities, so it is generally lack of motive-force for students to study Chinese. In the USA, pupils and secondary school students who study Chinese are not up to 50,000 in total while those learning French exceed well over one million in all. The implementation of the AP Chinese will help change effectively the present situation, pushing greatly forward the fervency in the study of Chinese. And so the day is considered to be the "historic moment" in Chinese education in the United States of America.

When attending the inaugurating ceremony of the program that day, Yang Jiechi, Chinese ambassador to the US said, The setup of the AP Chinese will help promote the mutual understanding and exchanges among the Chinese and the US young people, increase the friendship of the peoples of the two countries. This is of great and far-reaching significance in expanding and developing the Sino-US Trade, strengthening the exchange and cooperation of the two countries in all fields.

Along with the development of China and the daily increase of its international intercourse the value of the Chinese application in the international exchanges will be greatly enhanced and more and more people will get to know the charm of the Chinese culture. If you study Putonghua well it means that you've already mastered the tool for the communication with 1.3 billion Chinese people and to study Chinese well means that you've already had an important key in hand for accessing the gate leading to the world in future.

To open up AP Chinese is to meet the needs responding to the continuously increasing relations in global economy and the needs for daily-growing multiple cultures in the US, said Gaston, President of the US College Board. The program can not only make the US high school students to get in touch with the Chinese but can also help them to know the Chinese literature, the profound Chinese history, thereby enriching their growing-up.

According to the investigation of the US research organizations, the US high school students are generally lack of knowledge of the outside world. For instance, they do not know who is Mao Zedong. By way of the implementation of the AP foreign language program it can help the US high-school students increase the knowledge of the outside world and especially to know something more about the Asia. Setting up in the program together with the Chinese are AP Japanese and Russia.

The AP Chinese is another important program for cooperation between the Chinese and the US governments and before this, the two governments have already developed cooperation in lingual teaching under the APEC framework. Up to the present moment the cooperation program for the online lingual teaching is going on smoothly.

Article by China News Agency and Translated by People's Daily Online staff R. L. Han

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