Increasing demand to learn Chinese language

Editor's note: Nancy Hsiao, founder and director of Han You Chinese Language Institute, headed to New Delhi from her hometown in Taiwan. She established the institute in 2011 to offer Chinese-language training courses. China Daily reporter An Baijie spoke with her on Sept 13 and below is an abstract of what she said about her career.

The China-India relationship has improved in recent years, especially after then-Chinese president Hu Jintao visited India in 2006. More and more Indian people, mostly businessmen who trade with China, have an increasing demand to learn the Chinese language.

However, the number of Chinese people living in India remains small, let alone qualified Chinese-language teachers. I have experience teaching the Chinese language in Taiwan so I decided to establish an institute in New Delhi to train people in Chinese.

All of the teachers in my institute are Chinese natives who have a comprehensive knowledge about Chinese language and culture. We are looking for more qualified Chinese teachers along with the expansion of our businesses, but it's difficult to find excellent teachers.

There are lots of misunderstandings between the people of the two countries. Many Chinese have been misled by negative news reports that depict India as disorderly and dangerous. But actually, it is not bad here.

The average income level in India is lower than it is in China, and I think that's why there are not so many Chinese people here.

About 300 Indian people have received training courses here in the institute. Some big companies, including Tata and Samsung, have also had their Indian workers trained here. There are also many children from the embassies learning the Chinese language in the institute.

After receiving about 40 hours of language courses, most of the trainees could introduce themselves, including their names, jobs, hobbies and family members, in Chinese.

In class, we not only train people in the language but also introduce Chinese culture and tradition, which will help the students better understand China.

Given the fact that more and more Indians are willing to learn Chinese, we are planning to set up a branch in Gurgaon city of Haryana state, where there are a large number of companies.