In connection with commemoration of The UN Chinese Language Day observed on 20th April annually, celebrations are solemnized with zeal and zest in Pakistan.
On the occasion, Chinese Acting Consul General in Lahore Peng Zhengwu said that The UN Chinese Language Day is to pay tribute to Cangjie, who is believed to be the inventor of the Chinese characters about 5,000 years ago. “Characters and languages are the symbols of civilization. With the growing demands of communication between peoples, Chinese language has been spread to a world-wide range,” he added.
In Pakistan, he said, there are several Confucius Institutes in local universities offering Chinese language teaching and certification. “Moreover, lots of local schools, such as Atchison College, Grammar School and Lahore American School have Chinese language courses. There are more and more people in Pakistan taking Chinese language as the key to the life and work of the coming era. With the peaceful and dynamic development of China, they believe, those who can master Chinese well will share the benefits of a stronger China and become the leaders of future generation,” he explained.
He further mentioned that some Pakistani people are famous for their fluent Chinese and good way of teaching. “There are numerous Chinese courses taught in Urdu on line as well. Institute of International and Chinese universities offer hundreds of scholarships to Pakistan students every year, which facilitate them to learn Chinese language in local society. Chinese companies prefer to recruit Chinese-speaking employees, too,” he said.
Naveed Elahi, teaching Chinese language in Lahore said “CPEC has definitely increased the avenues of cooperation. In the 1990s, very few people in Pakistan were interested in learning Mandarin. Maybe few schools colleges were offering courses in the public and private sector. After CPEC’s commencement, there was an uptick in the number of people signing up for such courses.”
He said that a large number of Chinese companies are coming to invest in Pakistan now. This will open up, he said, job opportunities in the local market. And they will definitely need young professionals who are well-versed in Mandarin.
