David Cameron: Learning English Is A Key Part Of Schooling For These Chinese 6 Yr Olds| 2 min read
Mr Cameron did a lot in terms of developing business ties during his visit but one Tweet shared from his official Twitter account sticks out to us at ImmerQi. As the UK PM visited a local Chinese school he pointed out the importance of learning English for Chinese students.
‘Learning English is a key part of schooling for these Chinese 6 yr olds. More British children should learn Mandarin,’ he said. ImmerQi’s Teach & Travel China program has helped thousands of young people start their path to teaching here in China with hundreds of thousands of young Chinese students improving their English in the process.
Cameron met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and witnessed Jaguar Land Rover signing a £4.5billion deal to sell cars in China while in Beijing. He met with Jack Ma of Alibaba, China’s version of Amazon, signed a deal to tighten football ties between the English Premier League and China and spoke to students at students at Jiao Tong University while in Shanghai. Finally he visited the Du Fu museum in Chengdu and local schools in his last city stop.
As well as pointing out the young age that Chinese students learn English, the PM has also commented on the need for Mandarin study in the UK where he said- ‘I want Britain linked up to the world’s fast growing economies – and that includes our young people learning the languages to seal tomorrow’s business deals.’
‘By the time the children born today leave school, China is set to be be the world’s largest economy. So it’s time to look beyond the traditional focus on French and German and get many more children learning Mandarin,’ he said.
This is also something that ImmerQi have been well aware of the importance of for the past few years and making Mandarin study an essential part of the China Internship Program is something we believe to be of the utmost importance.
Cameron’s comments come as 2014 is just around the corner, hopefully another great year for people to come an experience China be it in teaching, internships or volunteering.
