Indian schools are introducing Mandarin as an optional language for their students. India plans to teach Mandarin in more than 100 schools. But to reach the goal, India needs teachers, who are in short supply.
Indian schools are taking Mandarin to their schools...
India is in the process of introducing Mandarin as an optional language in schools. Till now Indians have had an advantage of good spoken English among the educated Indians. But with trade growing between India and China and China becoming India’s largest trading partner, India has decided to learn the new language of doing business.
Debashis Chaudh, Assoc. Fellow of Institute of Chinese Studies, said, "It will be great help if students from the very beginning from the school level if they start learning Chinese. Because misunderstanding, prejudice towards other countries, other people we have. To remove those prejudice, language learning is very important and language can be a big barrier."
A number of Indian universities already have Mandarin courses, but learning it at schools is something new. One of the biggest challenges that India faces is the training of teachers.
Private schools have come up in big Indian cities to lap up the opportunity of filling the gap between demand and supply of teachers.
Other than private schools governments are also involved in training teachers. Indians are being trained in China to pick up the language quickly. India and China have also signed a memorandum of understanding that proposes exchange of academic staff, teachers and students.
Experts say the other problem lies in the fact that most teachers take up jobs as translators in business and tourism sectors as these are financially way more lucrative.
Srikanth Kondapalli, Professor of Chinese Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, said, "I think two main sources, one is the states - Chinese and Indian states and second is private sector market where they are able to recruit people. These are the two answers provided so far in terms of the 11500 schools that want to recruit Chinese language teachers as part of the curriculum build up."
Meng is an intern at the Institute of Chinese studies in New Delhi. She studies Indian culture here. She says teaching Mandarin at school level will also bridge the understanding gap between India and China.
Cheng Meng, Intern Institute of Chinese Studies, said, "The only problem between Chinese and Indians is lack of communication and if Indians get a chance to study mandarin they will get more close to the Chinese culture."
China’s economic surge over the past decade is the driving force behind introduction of Mandarin in schools in India. With the economic world order changing, the knowledge if mandarin in nations where English is not widely spoken will broaden horizons. Assuming that these students would know Hindi and English, this would mean that these Indians would know languages spoken by most inhabitants of the world.