Overseas Chinese learners grow to 30 million
By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-21 06:10

"To learn Chinese fosters a deeper mutual understanding among our next generations who create and share the same future."

In Canada, Chinese has become the third most spoken language, after English and French, according to Joseph Caron, Canadian ambassador to China.

"China has been a key player in the global economy with growing importance," Caron said. "The language is an important means of fostering communication within the context of global multi-culturalism."

Representatives from Ethiopia and Singapore also stressed the popularity of Chinese in their countries.

China is doing its part by seeking closer co-operation with educational institutes overseas.

"China has an unshirkable responsibility for language teaching overseas," said State Councillor Chen Zhili, addressing the opening of the conference.

With the development of Chinese in a multi-cultural world as its theme, the three-day conference has attracted 342 representatives from more than 70 countries as well as 175 delegates from China itself.

The conference will discuss topics such as Chinese language development policies in countries around the world, the improvement of the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) and theoretical studies on teaching Chinese as a foreign language.