2015年CRI China, Britain Witness Booming Education Cooperation

 

There are currently around 6-thousand British nationals studying in China.

Earlier this month, Lang Lang began learning Mandarin¹ at Beijing-based Tsinghua University, one of China's top schools, in an attempt to become more rounded when looking for a job.

Tighter ties between China and the UK in recent years has led to a sharp rise in the number of British students travelling to China to study.

To maintain this trend, British Chancellor² of the Exchequer³ George Osborne has pleged his government will recruit an additional 5-thousand UK students to learn Mandarin before 2020.

China is also the largest source of foreign students in Britain.

150-thousand Chinese nationals are currently studying in the country.

Yu Jianyi majored in public policy at the University of London.

She says Chinese students attending British schools need to learn in a different way from what they were accustomed to in China.

"You have to spend quite some time in libraries after classes or you will fall back. My classmates came from around the world. Our in-class discussions were quite different from the process at Chinese schools. Most foreign students are outspoken⁴. The questions we discussed usually had more than one answer."

Du Li works for a Beijing-based consultancy which recruits Chinese students to study abroad.

She says there are good reasons why British schools are attractive to Chinese students.

"British schools are becoming more popular with Chinese students largely due to their flexible teaching methods and the reasonable curriculum designs. On top of this, the quality of education in the UK is widely recognized."

The Chinese and British governments have already signed an ambitious framework to expand collaboration⁵ across higher, vocational and grade-school education, on top of closer collaboration in sports education.

Chinese Education Minister Yuan Guiren says its steps like these which will help increase ties between the two countries.

"Improved education partnerships⁶ will benefit the two country's education sectors⁷ and their students. It will also ensure a promising⁸ future, as bilateral⁹ relationships are going to be handled by the young in the years to come."

As part of time in the UK, Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken time out to tour Imperial College in London.

Observers are suggesting the tour could be a sign the Chinese goverment may be preparing to make education a higher priority in China-UK ties in the future.

For CRI, I'm Luo Wen.

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 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

3 exchequer   

n.财政部；国库

参考例句：

• In Britain the Chancellor of the Exchequer deals with taxes and government spending.英国的财政大臣负责税务和政府的开支。
• This resulted in a considerable loss to the exchequer.这使国库遭受了重大损失。

4 outspoken   

adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的

参考例句：

• He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
• She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。

5 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

6 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

7 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

9 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。