2015年CRI Chinese Language in Russian Schools

Chinese Language in Russian Schools

Ekaterina Arkhipova is one of several students who chose to study Mandarin¹ as a foreign language at her school in Moscow. During her first lesson, she is very keen to learn the language.

"Chinese is a very difficult language - even after studying it for a few years some new Chinese characters appear that need to be learnt and this language doesn't come easy for many, many people can't study it, can't pronounce it well - but I am good at it."

Ekaterina believes that studying Mandarin is a good investment into her future. In the light of Russia's and China's growing cooperation over recent years, Ekaterina believes there will be a demand for Chinese-speaking specialists, like interpreters. Her teacher, Veronika Shaskova, agrees.

"I think the fact that Russia is developing its relations with China has a lot to do with that. Different contracts, agreements between Russia and China provoke this interest."

Due to a growing demand in students wanting to learn Mandarin, Russia's Education Ministry² has decided³ to add Chinese to a list of foreign languages test in Russia's Unified⁴ State Exam in 2017.

So far the list includes English, French, Spanish and German. High school students in Russia have to pass this test when they apply to college and university. So far it is an experiment but Yaroslav Kuzminov, from Higher School of Economics, says there is a lot of potential.

"As to when this can become an entrance exam along with English and French - this will happen as soon as we have 1500 people who know Chinese well and who can read in Chinese starting from their first year. We will continue working in this direction and I think we are, as a country, interested in this."

The experiment will run in several Russian cities, in Moscow, St.Petersburg and in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk. However, Russian education authorities plan to make foreign languages a mandatory⁵ subject in the test, which includes 14 different disciplines, by 2020.

For CRI, I'm Julia Lyubova, in Moscow.

1 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

2 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

5 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。