大卫·卡梅伦呼吁英国学生多学中文.

2017-08-14 作者： 412阅读

　　大卫·卡梅伦呼吁英国学生多学中文

　　David Cameron urges British students to ditch French and learn Mandarin

　　David Cameron, who has notoriously poor schoolboy French, is urging today&aposs youngsters to abandon the language of Molière and Voltaire to concentrate on the tongue of the future – Mandarin.

　　In a parting shot, as he lt China after a three-day visit, the prime minister said that pupils should look beyond the traditional French and German lessons and instead focus on China.

　　To reinforce his message the prime minister quoted Nelson Mandela, who said learning someone else&aposs language is the best way to their heart. Cameron said: "I want Britain linked up to the world&aposs fast-growing economies. And that includes our young people learning the languagesto seal tomorrow&aposs business deals.

　　"By the time the children born today leave school, China is set to be the world&aposs largest economy. So it&aposs time to look beyond the traditional focus on French and German and get many more children learning Mandarin.

　　"As Mandela once said: &aposIf you talk to a man in a language he understands that goes to his head, if you talk to him in his own language that goes to his heart.&apos"

　　Cameron, who visited a school for six- and seven-year-olds learning English in Chengdu, said that a partnership between the British Council and Hanban – the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language – will double the number of Chinese language assistants in the UK by 2016 and provide increased funding to lower the cost to schools of offering Mandarin as a language option.

　　In an expansion of the UK-China School Partnerships programme, funding will also be provided for 60 headteachers to make study visits to China in 2014.

　　The announcement was welcomed by the British Council and the British Academy, both of which have been pushing for policies to reverse the decline in students taking modern languages at school and university level.

　　Martin Davidson, the British Council&aposs chi executive who has been visiting China with Cameron, said: "The promotion of Chinese language in the UK and the English language in China are both vital to economic and cultural relations between the two countries. This initiative will increase collaboration and is particularly significant given that recent British Council research shows that Mandarin is one of 10 languages not widely spoken in the UK and yet crucial to our future growth and prosperity."

　　In recent research the British Council placed Mandarin in the top five most important languages for Britain&aposs future prosperity, security and influence. But it found only 1% of the adult population speaks Mandarin to a level that allows them to conduct a basic conversation. Just 3,000 pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland entered for Chinese languages GCSEs in 2013, putting it far behind the traditional choices of French with 177,000, Spanish with 91,000 and German with 62,000 entrants, as well as Urdu, Polish and Arabic.

　　But the popularity of Chinese languages improves at A-level, where it was the fourth most popular modern language in 2013, with 3,300 entrants compared with 11,000 taking A-level French and 4,200 taking German.

　　The estimated 500,000 ethnic Chinese living in Britain make it the largest overseas Chinese population of any European country.

　　Professor Dame Helen Wallace, the British Academy&aposs foreign secretary, said her organisation had been arguing for an improvement in foreign language skills, and had identified Mandarin as one of the extended range of languages to be promoted in schools.

　　But a lack of qualified teachers could be a barrier to improving its popularity, Wallace said.

　　"The supply chain needs to work in both ways. Children need to be persuaded to do it and you need the availability of capable teachers at all levels – primary, secondary and university – to develop positive reinforcement in the availability of teachers and the interest of teachers."

　　And she warned: "No such strategy works unless you stick at it. There&aposs no use doing this for two or three years and then forgetting about it – you have to make a long-term investment in this kind of change capacity."Laura Chan, one of the co-founders of the Marco Polo Academy, a bilingual Mandarin-English primary school opening in Barnet next September as part of the free schools programme, said the prime minister&aposs announcement was good news for the status of Mandarin.

　　"It&aposs a great help. It will increase people&aposs awareness of Mandarin as a language they can learn," she said.

　　"One reason we wanted to set up the free school is that the teaching of language in the UK is not particularly fective, especially for young children."

　　From September 2014, studying foreign languages will be compulsory in primary schools under the new national curriculum.

　　众所周知，卡梅伦的法语水平相当一般。但他却呼吁英国年轻人放弃法语学习，集中精力学习“未来的语言”——汉语。

　　卡梅伦在结束了为期三天的访华行程后表示，英国的年轻人应该打破只关注法德语学习的传统局限，今后应集中学习汉语。

　　为了更有说服力，卡梅伦还引用了南非前总统曼德拉的名言——“要了解一个国度的精神世界，最好的方法就是学习他们的语言”。卡梅伦表示：“我希望英国能紧跟世界经济发展的脚步。其中重要的一方面就是让我们的年青一代学习正在崛起的中国的语言。”

　　“等到这一代学生走出校门的时候，中国很可能已成为世界最大的经济体。所以现在是时候将注意力从传统的德法语学习转向汉语学习。”

　　“正如曼德拉曾说过，‘以对方能听懂的语言说的话只能进入对方的大脑，以对方的母语说的话才能走入对方的内心’”。

　　卡梅伦访问了成都的龙江路小学。他还表示，英国文化委员会和中国汉办(中国国家汉语国际推广领导小组办公室)将会继续合作伙伴关系，计划到2016年将英国的汉语助教人数提高一倍，并为开设汉语教学的英国学校提供资金支持以降低其办学成本。

　　卡梅伦表示也将继续推进与中国学校的合作项目，计划在2014年公费支持60位中小学校长访问中国。

　　卡梅伦的上述声明受到了英国文化委员会和英国社会科学院的欢迎，这两个组织都在努力扭转英国大学和中学学生对现代语言学习逐渐丧失兴趣的局面。

　　同卡梅伦一起访华的英国文化委员会执行总裁马丁·戴维森(Martin Davidson)表示：“同时推进中国的英语教学事业和英国的汉语教学事业对于加强两国的经济文化联系是至关重要的。首相此次的倡议不仅会加强两国合作，对于英国自己也有重要意义。英国文化委员会的调查显示，在英国汉语是普及率最低的10种语言之一，但汉语对于英国未来的发展繁荣无疑是十分重要的。”

　　在英国文化委员会最近的一项研究中，汉语被列为关乎英国未来繁荣、安全和影响力的最重要语种前五名。但研究发现，只有1%的英国人能够使用汉语进行基本的日常对话。2013年度英格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰一共只有3000名初中学生报名了GCSE标准中文课程，这远远少于选择其他语言的学生人数。例如，选择法语的学生有177,000名，选择西班牙语的有91,000名，选择德语的有62,200名。除了这些传统的热门语言之外，选择汉语学习的学生人数也少于乌尔都语、波兰语和阿拉伯语。

　　不过，学习中文的高中生呈现出增多的趋势。高中的中文课程是2013年度最热门的4大现代语言课程之一，共有3300名学生参加。选择法语课程的高中生有11,000名，选择德语课程的高中生有4,200名。

　　目前约有50万华裔人士居住在英国，这一数字高于欧洲其他国家。

　　英国社会科学院外事发言人海伦·华莱士(Dame Helen Wallace)教授说：“一直以来，我们都十分赞成提高公民的外语水平，我们已把汉语列为各大学校应设立学科进行教学的语种之一。”

　　华莱士补充说：“不过现在缺乏专业的汉语教师，这将会给普及汉语学习带来一定困难。”

　　“增加中文教师数量需要双管齐下。一方面，要说服学生们选择中文课程;另一方面，需要有能力的教师站上中小学和大学的讲台，证明中文教师的实际价值，吸引更多同行加入。”

　　华莱士还提醒道：“任何计划只有坚持才能奏效。推广汉语学习也一样，只做个两三年然后置之不理是没有用的。改变目前的语言学习状况需要长期的努力。”明年9月将有一所名为“马可波罗学院”的中英双语小学在巴尼特成立，这所学校也是英国“免费学校”计划的项目之一。这所学校的创始人之一劳拉·陈(Laura Chan)认为，首相此次的呼吁对于提高汉语在英国的地位来说是一个好消息。

　　她说：“这无疑大有帮助。首相的呼吁让人们意识到汉语也是他们需要学习掌握的语言之一。”

　　“我们想要建立这所免费学校也是因为在英国语言教学的成效并不显著，尤其是对于年纪小的孩子。”

　　根据最新修订的国家课程大纲，从2014年9月起，外语学习将成为英国小学的必修科目。