Five volunteer teachers have left for the Indian Ocean republic
country Mauritius to teach Chinese, sources with the China National
Office of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language said
Saturday.
They were the first group of volunteers sent under the country's
international program for Chinese language teaching.
The volunteers, aged between 24 and 30, have bachelor's or
master's degrees, and four of them used to teach in China.
According to the office, foreign learners of Chinese have topped
25 million around the world, and Chinese courses are available at
schools and training organizations in about 100 countries.
The Chinese government sends Chinese teachers overseas every
year but the number does not meet demand, the office said.
The countries including Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand,
the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Egypt, South Africa, Mexico
and France have requested more Chinese teachers.
In April this year, the program started recruiting volunteer
teachers to serve overseas from half a year to two years.
In Mauritius, about a dozen schools have been offering Chinese
classes over the past two decades. More than 1,200 people are
studying at these schools. This year, Chinese was officially put
into the curriculum of the country's primary schools.
(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2004)