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Writing on wall: Mandarin in CBSE syllabus

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May 27, 2010
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Writing on wall: Mandarin in CBSE syllabus

NEW DELHI: Don't be surprised if your kids move on from playing Chinese whispers to mouthing Mandarin. Recognizing the growing economic influence of China, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to introduce Mandarin Chinese in schools starting with class VI from 2011-12 session.

The curriculum is nearly ready and the Board has already written to its affiliated schools giving them the option to take up the course. "China is the fastest growing economy in the world so we thought it would be beneficial for students to learn the language as it opens up a lot of opportunities," said CBSE chairperson Vineet Joshi.

He said the Board would first introduce Mandarin in class VI and then in higher classes. "We are preparing the textbooks," Joshi said.

CBSE already runs courses in 12 foreign languages.

French, German and Spanish are quite popular in classes VI to VIII but with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) deciding to introduce Mandarin Chinese in schools academicians say the language will find many takers. Jyoti Bose, principal, Springdales School in Dhaula Kuan, said, "We tried introducing Chinese in our school last year and there were quite a few students who wanted to take it up, but there was a problem finding teachers. Now it has been introduced, it should be continued in senior classes as well."

Dr Sreemati Chakrabarti, an expert on China and a professor in the department of East Asian Studies in Delhi University, said, "We have been getting 700-800 applications for just 100 seats in the last few years."

She further explained, "China today is the largest trading partner of a large number of countries. Chinese companies are setting up businesses in different countries where they look for locals who know their language. So the job opportunities are enormous." But there is a huge shortfall of people who can teach Mandarin Chinese in India. Chakrabarti said that introducing the Chinese language at the school level can make a big difference in the long run. "It's very difficult to get teachers from China because of strict visa regulations. Starting Mandarin Chinese in schools will ensure there is more scope for interaction in the future. India doesn't even have one great Sinologist. The number of Chinese scholars doing research on India far outnumber the Indian scholars studying China," she said.

To meet the shortage, CBSE plans to train teachers before initiating the course. The curriculum has been designed by a committee of experts formed in November whose first priority would be to make textbooks. "The Chinese language is not easy. It has a non-alphabetic, pictographic script. We are trying to devise a course in which the students can learn the pronunciation through Devanagri script. This language can't be learnt in a short time but probably children can retain better," said professor Priyadarsi Mukherji from the Centre of Chinese and South East Asian Studies, JNU.

Writing on wall: Mandarin in CBSE syllabus - The Times of India
 
It's a good move. This century belongs to India and China and we Indians must be familiar with the language of the country slated to be the next superpower and our immediate neighbour.

As far as shortage of Mandarin teachers is concerned, we can always seek to let some Chinese teachers to enter with a work permit.

P.S. I'm myself thinking about getting a working knowledge of Mandarin. Can anyone tell me some internet resources which can help me in that?
 
It's a good move. This century belongs to India and China and we Indians must be familiar with the language of the country slated to be the next superpower and our immediate neighbour.

P.S. I'm myself thinking about getting a working knowledge of Mandarin. Can anyone tell me some internet resources which can help me in that?

Rosetta stone is probably your best bet and since Hindi contains more tones in common with Mandarin than a language like English, you probably have a leg up on westerners who are trying to learn the language.
 
It's a good move. This century belongs to India and China and we Indians must be familiar with the language of the country slated to be the next superpower and our immediate neighbour.

P.S. I'm myself thinking about getting a working knowledge of Mandarin. Can anyone tell me some internet resources which can help me in that?

Absolutely, China is the future and the sooner we start getting learning Mandarin, the better for us.

I think you should try contacting Chinese embassy for help. One of my friends needed help with Italian and he just contacted the Italian embassy who have special classes for learning the language, maybe Chinese embassy too might be holding such classes.
 
Rosetta stone is probably your best bet and since Hindi contains more tones in common with Mandarin than a language like English, you probably have a leg up on westerners who are trying to learn the language.

You sure about that? I think Hindi and English belong to the Indo-Aryan group of languages whereas Mandarin belongs to some other group (not sure which one). In my view, it would be more difficult for Indians to learn Mandarin than English. But anyhow, since its being introduced in school, the kids would pick it up faster than us grown-ups. Good step anyways. :tup:
 
You sure about that? I think Hindi and English belong to the Indo-Aryan group of languages whereas Mandarin belongs to some other group (not sure which one). In my view, it would be more difficult for Indians to learn Mandarin than English. But anyhow, since its being introduced in school, the kids would pick it up faster than us grown-ups. Good step anyways. :tup:

It is harder to learn Mandarin as compared to English, no argument there... but my point was that it is harder for an English speaker to learn Mandarin than it is for a Hindi speaker to learn Mandarin.


If I remember right, Hindi has 21 tones and Mandarin has only 5 tones.
 
I heard that the main problem is schools do not get the chinese language teachers

practically it is very difficult to implement decision in public schools....
I heard the interview of a top most school's principal's interview, she said the school introduced the language in as back as in 2009... but students took less interest in learning the language.. so the course was withdrawn
 
I heard that the main problem is schools do not get the chinese language teachers

practically it is very difficult to implement decision in public schools....
I heard the interview of a top most school's principal's interview, she said the school introduced the language in as back as in 2009... but students took less interest in learning the language.. so the course was withdrawal

Well that might have something to do with the Indian government banning the Confucius Institute in India. The Confucius Institute is a Chinese government sponsored program that provide free Chinese teachers to numerous countries around the world. These teachers are fluent in both the native language and Chinese, and are provided free of charge to whatever learning institution (high school, university etc) that wants to start a Chinese language program.


Canada has several of these institutes already.


British Columbia Institute of Technology
University of Waterloo
Confucius Institute (Moncton, New Brunswick)
Dawson College & Université de Sherbrooke
Edmonton Public Schools
McMaster University
Brock University
Saint Mary's University, Halifax
School District 43 Coquitlam


The only Indian University that hosts the CI program is the Jawaharlal Nehru University
 
even indian defence forces have acknowledged that we need more mandarin trained officers and men to man "listening posts" on border. hence several personnel from armed forces are being sent to various institutes like centre for english and foreign languages etc to learn chineese. even premier institutions like NDA teach mandarin.

on the topic, i think its a great move. The future belongs to asia. it would certainly help if our next generation is trained in their native language. this would further improve buissness between two countries.
 
even indian defence forces have acknowledged that we need more mandarin trained officers and men to man "listening posts" on border. hence several personnel from armed forces are being sent to various institutes like centre for english and foreign languages etc to learn chineese. even premier institutions like NDA teach mandarin.

on the topic, i think its a great move. The future belongs to asia. it would certainly help if our next generation is trained in their native language. this would further improve buissness between two countries.

Hey, I really don't mind for what reason that Indians learn Chinese (spying or otherwise), just as they attempt to learn the language.

I've always held the belief that language holds the key to understanding how another culture thinks.
 
It is a matter of concern that in spite of India and China being neighbors, we know very little about each other....Hope this measure by CBSE corrects that
 
Hey, I really don't mind for what reason that Indians learn Chinese (spying or otherwise), just as they attempt to learn the language.

I've always held the belief that language holds the key to understanding how another culture thinks.

i agree with u r assessment. although its been widely acknowledged that indian understanding of pakistan is much better as compared to china. so indian govt has taken these steps so that our diplomats and soldiers have better understanding of chineese culture.
 
apart from this forum.... the foreigners(like australians, newzealand) criticized this move of indian govt (read the comments in newspaper website that published the article....)

they say india must promote Hindi as it national and official language and it would not benefit India to introduce language like chinese(which is spoken exclusively in china)

I think they are not aware of the complications of promoting Hindi as national language.... but hindi is already our official language
 
Rosetta stone is probably your best bet and since Hindi contains more tones in common with Mandarin than a language like English, you probably have a leg up on westerners who are trying to learn the language.

You're right, "Rosetta stone" is probably the best software out there for learning other languages. :tup:
 

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