Learning advantage

Guo Shulin, a Chinese lecturer at Beijing Language and Culture University, was sent by his school in 2008 to teach the language in Wellesley College in the US for a year.

The 30-year-old, who has a master's degree in Chinese and a bachelor's in teaching Chinese as a second language, says he was initially shocked by his US students' understanding of China - or lack thereof.

"I was there when Beijing hosted the Olympics but they did not seem to know much about China," Guo says.

"I had to spend a lot of time explaining to them what was happening in the country."

Guo says the reason for the boom in studying Chinese in the past decade has changed from "curiosity and academic research to more practical concerns".

The increasing importance of the Chinese market for multinationals is one of the major factors behind that interest in the Chinese language, says Anny Jiang, China partner at Antal International, a UK human resources group.

"China is at the core of the international business development strategy for almost every multinational and it contributes more and more to global revenues multinationals are expanding here and to do that, they are bringing in more expats," Jiang says.

"In some companies, Western executives can find themselves competing with candidates from China and other Asian markets for the same jobs.

"Although the working language is still English, Westerners who have been in China for more than two years and can speak fluent Chinese will have more opportunity getting a job. Chinese is as important as English as a language of commerce it is important to understand the role that China plays in the changing global economy."

Wang Jianqin says that for the moment, the popularity of learning Chinese among foreigners will be balanced with similar interest among Chinese students learning English.

"Americans may watch more Chinese films and study Mandarin. But, by the same token, Chinese people will continue to learn from the West. Chinese will study more Shakespeare just as how Europeans and Americans may read more Confucius. The world is more likely to become multi-polar and culturally layered in this sense."

"But while there are more native speakers of Chinese than those of English, the number of native speakers of a language alone does not determine whether the language can become an international language," Wang says.

"The Chinese economy is developing very fast but Chinese culture is still less understood by the outside world.

"It needs more time to develop and to be accepted, especially by Westerners."