Chinese to be taught in all Swedish schools

• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2011-07-08 21:38
  [Image: http://www.dawn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/swedish-school-543.jpg]

  
  

  A pupil at the Swedish school in Berlin smiles in his classroom. Getting Swedish pupils to learn Chinese was vital to strengthening Swedish competitiveness, the education minister told financial daily Dagens Industri. - Reuters file photo
  
  STOCKHOLM: Within a decade, all Swedish primary schools should offer Chinese lessons, Sweden’s education minister was quoted as saying Wednesday, insisting the move was needed to improve competitiveness.
  
  “I want to see Sweden become the first country in Europe to introduce instruction in Chinese as a foreign language at all primary and secondary schools,” said Jan Bjoerklund, who heads the Progress Party, a junior member of the centre-right ruling coalition.
  
  Getting Swedish pupils to learn Chinese was vital to strengthening Swedish competitiveness, the education minister told financial daily Dagens Industri.
  
  “Not everyone in the business world speaks English. Very highly qualified activities are leaving Europe to move to China. Chinese will be much more important from an economic point of view than French or Spanish,” he said.
  
  English is today the main foreign language taught in Swedish schools, followed by Spanish, German and French.
  
  Bjoerklund acknowledged that such a move would demand a lot of resources, especially for recruiting educators who can teach Chinese, but said that within a decade all primary schools should be equipped to teach the language, while it might take 15 years for secondary schools to readjust.

  
  
  http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/06/chinese-to-be-taught-in-all-swedish-schools.html
  
  Interestings
• Aliyah wrote on 2011-07-08 21:41
  Smart move
• Kingofrunes wrote on 2011-07-09 00:12
  Very smart move. Now....
  
  We need to start learning Chinese over here in America seeing that we owe them so much money >.>
• Mentosftw wrote on 2011-07-09 00:51
  Looks like they've already accepted China as the world superpower.
• Claudia wrote on 2011-07-09 00:54
  Good idea.
  
  I remember filling out a survey freshman year, asking us if we wanted Mandarin classes...I was dying to have some, [even though it was doubtful they'd implement it before I graduated] but almost everybody [read: snobby, rich white kids] were like "WELL I DON'T THINK WE NEED TO KNOW CHINESE SO THIS IS A BAD, BAD, IDEA TO HAVE THESE CLASSES CAUSE I WOULDN'T TAKE THEM"
  
  lol, it's great to think that these people are going to be the ones running the world 20~30 years from now; chinese/mandarin is one of the top three languages everybody ought to learn in this day and age [the other two being Spanish and Arabic]
• TinyMo wrote on 2011-07-09 01:00
  I wish they'd done this when I was in school.
  
  I know a private elementary school that was looking for a japanese teacher. That's the closest I've heard of anybody teaching anything interesting in my area.
• Aliyah wrote on 2011-07-09 01:10
  They offered chinese at my school but the in thing was French. Useless French >.>
• Sinned wrote on 2011-07-09 01:56
  Now if only I didn't fail 4 years of chinese school before my parents gave up.
• Yoorah wrote on 2011-07-09 02:00
  China is not a "superpower". But those interested in future job (and business) competitiveness should look into learning Chinese, for sure. As China continues to grow, the number of business opportunities increases. After all, the Chinese couldn't really do much themselves, as their tech and know-how have been primitive. They have been relying on immense amounts of foreign expertise in all aspects of their development. The "Great Firewall of China," for instance, is built on Cisco hardware. The same can be said about their impressive construction projects. Their rail infrastructure, etc. Want your company to have a piece of this pie? Knowing Chinese would help. xP
• Justin1221 wrote on 2011-07-09 02:01
  What's this about Chinese taking over the world and such?
  
  I wouldn't despise learning Chinese if I had to.
• Claudia wrote on 2011-07-09 02:21

  Quote from Yoorah;505261:

  China is not a "superpower". But those interested in future job (and business) competitiveness should look into learning Chinese, for sure. As China continues to grow, the number of business opportunities increases. After all, the Chinese couldn't really do much themselves, as their tech and know-how have been primitive. They have been relying on immense amounts of foreign expertise in all aspects of their development. The "Great Firewall of China," for instance, is built on Cisco hardware. The same can be said about their impressive construction projects. Their rail infrastructure, etc. Want your company to have a piece of this pie? Knowing Chinese would help. xP

  
  
  Exactly.
  It's not that China is a superpower per se; but a lot of business is done with China/will be done with them in the future.
  For example; people who can understand/speak Arabic would naturally be a hot commodity as far as communications go. We do a lot of business [well, negotiating, if you'd like] with people who are Arabic. Can't do business if you can't speak the language!
• Mrlucky77 wrote on 2011-07-09 02:34
  Strange, my elementary school did Spanish instead.
• Conor wrote on 2011-07-09 02:41
  /jealous
  but now i feel like it's official that china's takin over.
• Yogurticecream wrote on 2011-07-09 03:29
  If you want to keep up with the edge, you have to learn Chinese.
  It has been talk from 10 years back, and still very relevant today.
  I feel that people who ignored advice in this area are very ignorant.
• Misaka wrote on 2011-07-09 03:31
  All this talk about learning Chinese reminds me of the times when people said you should be learning Spanish if you want to make it big in America.