CAIRO: This academic year will witness the opening of the first Chinese school in Egypt, catering to increasing global and local demand to learn the Far Eastern language.
Referred to as the “pilot school for Chinese-Egyptian Friendship, the school is the result of cooperation between the Egyptian and Chinese governments. Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga and Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying signed the cooperation protocol and inaugurated the school in an event earlier this month.
China s ambassador to Cairo Wu Sike Hua and Egyptian Minister of Education Yosri El-Gamal attended the inauguration ceremony.
“The school was given by the Chinese government to the Egyptian government to help and encourage students to study the language. The school will teach both the Chinese language and Chinese history, Dr Lin Feng-min from the Chinese embassy’s education department told Daily News Egypt.
Located in Sixth of October City, the school was conceived through a Chinese grant of $3.75 million and is a part of china’s efforts to reinforce relations and cooperation with Egypt.
“The school will create good Egyptian-Chinese relations on the long run since language is part of communication, Feng-min added, explaining that there are various reasons why students would want to study Chinese these days.
“More pupils than ever want to learn Chinese. This school is just the beginning; there are already so many universities that teach Chinese including Ain Shams University.
“Students who learn Chinese have an advantage in business relations and there is a market for this, they may go on to earn high paying jobs.
Known for its difficulty, the Chinese language has been on the losing end of linguistics options on the local scene. Students usually prefer to study English, French and German as second languages. But recent cooperation with China on different levels, whether economical or cultural, created a demand for the language.
Dr Robert Williams, an assistant professor of TEFL/Applied Linguistics at the American University of Cairo, said that Chinese is difficult but has its rewards.
“It is not an easy language to learn as it relies on tone. But I can tell you that in the US almost no one is taking languages like French or German, but instead are focusing on languages like Chinese because they see the value of it. And I think in Egypt some parents might also start to see the importance of such a language, he explained.
Feng-min feels that there will still be an increasing demand to learn the Chinese language. “We hope that in future that Chinese becomes just as popular to the Egyptians as French and German and English are as second and third languages.
The school is fully equipped with the latest laboratories, classrooms and IT labs. English will be a compulsory language and students then choose to take Chinese, German, French, Spanish or Italian as a second language starting from fifth grade.
It will be one of the first schools to offer Chinese to students at such a young age.
“The earlier students start to learn a language the better. People are much more likely to learn and remember a language if they were taught it at a young age, Williams said.
Learning Chinese, Feng-min noted, would have its positive impact on the Egyptian economy by boosting cooperation between the two nations at many levels. Many Chinese holidaymakers, he continued, would be willing to come visit Egypt if more Egyptians knew how to speak their language.
“There are many Arabs working in China right now. Many Chinese people would like to visit Egypt but they need people to understand them and this would be possible if more Egyptians spoke Chinese and were able to communicate with and attract the tourists, he commented.
Williams explained that it is vital for Egyptians to learn Chinese if there was going to be interaction in the world of business. “If Egypt is going to engage more in Chinese relations for business, then it is essential that you have people that speak the language.
Although the school will cater for kindergarten right up to secondary education it will only take the KG class this year. It has accepted only 87 students out of the 1,500 that applied. Feng-min states that there are still some kinks that need to be worked out before the school can start accepting more students.
“Right now there is a shortage of Chinese teachers in order for us to be able to accommodate large numbers of students. There are no Chinese-Arabic books that can be used to teach the language efficiently, and unfortunately all the books that come from China can’t be used as they are not approved by the [Egyptian] Ministry of Education.
“However, we are hopeful that we will come to an agreement with the ministry in the future, which will help solve these problems, he added optimistically.
More Chinese schools are on their way with the hope that one Chinese school will be built in each Egyptian governorate.
Through the protocol signed by the two countries China picked the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s home village Kafr Al-Musilha in Menufiya governorate out of over 4,000 villages to build a multi-stage school. The Chinese ambassador said that it was a gesture to honor and show appreciation to the Egyptian president.
