More in UK keen to learn Chinese language

Clear benefits

Students who choose to give up some of their free time for the MEP are aware of the benefits brought about by learning Mandarin.

"Learning Chinese, especially in the finance world, will open many new doors for me because, obviously, the Chinese market is somewhat new to the European and the Western world," said Hojiakbar Sadullaev, who was an MEP student at Dartford Grammar School in Kent and who currently studies at Imperial College London. "So, personally, having a good knowledge of Chinese allows me to access more opportunities."

A better future also motivated Pijus Okunevicius, a student at Kingsford Community School in Newham, East London, who said the business world is definitely related to China, and that with Chinese he can become more recognizable. He said the learning journey has not always been smooth, but the prospect of achieving success has driven him forward.

"You can never succeed at something when the end is not hard to get. If it's easy, you can give up. If it's hard, you always keep trying, and I always have a future," he said.

Carruthers added: "Much more widely (speaking), obviously, the MEP has also given pupils the opportunity to broaden their horizons."

She said the "highlight we have been talking about is the intensive learning in China".

"For children, when they go to China, the vast majority won't have been there before, and, in fact, many have not been out of the UK necessarily before," Carruthers said. "It is allowing China to become real — to find out what it's really like, as opposed to the perceptions they might have had here (in the UK)."

As part of the MEP, students have the opportunity to participate in an extended period of intensive study in China.

This year, nearly 1,200 students from 62 schools across England traveled to China in July for an 11-day educational tour that combined both classroom study and immersive experience.

At a reception hosted on Oct 15 by the education section of the Chinese embassy in the UK to welcome home the MEP participants who had just completed their immersive trips, teenagers eagerly shared their fresh summer memories — the new buzzwords they had learned from their Chinese peers and how they had tried to haggle over prices in local markets.

Nathaniel Craske from Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Birmingham said on-the-ground experiences had "added more depth" to his learning, because they allowed him to understand how Chinese people interact with each other in real life and how the language can be used in diverse ways.

"It was very nice trying to use what you learned in the classroom in a more native way," he said.

Being exposed to a whole new world — the characters, grammar, writing, tones and the culture embedded within the language — is what has kept Craske motivated.

"You will need to listen to what young people have said, that it (Mandarin learning) is changing their perspectives, and some of them said they want to go to China to study, to work in China, or to use Chinese in their future work," Carruthers said.

"That is my advice (for future Mandarin education in the UK), that China is full of opportunities, that we need to understand China from whatever perspectives, and that we cannot just be relying on Chinese young people to speak great English.

"It is just important to give students the opportunities," Carruthers added. "It is not that everybody has to become a sinologist, but you will need to have a lot more young people (understanding China)."

Looking to the future

Access to Mandarin education remains limited, despite Mandarin having grown to become one of the most sought-after languages in the UK, the British Council report said.

Beyond further expanding provision for school-age students, the report also recommended that the government and education providers increase opportunities for study exchanges and immersive experiences in China, examine whether existing university partnerships could be better utilized to encourage UK outward mobility to China, expand internship and job placement programs in China or within companies with strong China connections, and more.

While looking beyond the functional benefits of learning Mandarin, Carruthers believes equipping young people in the UK with international experience in an ever more interconnected and collaborative world is both critical and urgent — a commitment she has upheld through decades of ups and downs amid an evolving geopolitical landscape.

Countless benefits could be named, she said, but what remains most vivid in her memory are the moments when peers from the two countries meet. Like the time, in one class she visited, when a British girl had sat looking slightly bored, twirling her hair before the Chinese students arrived.

Within minutes, she said, the British girl's face lit up as she began chatting with a new friend, and the Chinese girl, who had entered looking upright with her hair neatly pulled back, was no longer as quiet as she had seemed at first.

"And for me, that is what is all about," Carruthers said. "They are the future. If you give young people the chance, they will talk to each other, and only by talking, can countries understand each other."

Contact the writer at zhengwanyin@mail.chinadailyuk.com.