前所未有的汉语热：中文成“英国高考”第三大外语科目

 

在很多人印象中，中文曾被视为最难学的语言之一。但从诸多国家近年逐渐掀起的“汉语热”来看，学习汉语和汉学俨然成为了新趋势。素有“英国高考”之称的A-level考试于本月16日发榜，据英国考试委员会最新公布的数据，今年报考汉语的英国学生人数首次超过德语，成为“英国高考”第三大外语科目。

The Chinese language might be widely-known as being hard to learn, but tones and logograms are not stopping students from honing their tongues in Mandarin. More British students opted to sit Chinese tests than German in this year's A-level examinations, showing a great curiosity in the ancient Asian language amid a growing disinterest in foreign languages.

This is the first time that Mandarin Chinese has overtaken German at A-levels, a British public exam taken by high school students, making it the third most popular language in the UK.

据英国广播公司中文网报道，今年的A-Level考试，有3334名考生选择汉语为考试科目，和去年相比增长8.6%。法语仍是最受欢迎的第一外语，排名第二的是西班牙语。但是与去年相比，选择这两门语言作为A-level考试科目的学生数量都呈下降趋势，德语排在第五。

A total of 3,334 candidates chose Mandarin as their foreign language, up 8.6 percent from 2017, while around 3,058 sat A-level German, down 16.5 percent year-on-year.

French and Spanish still remain the most popular foreign languages, but the former slipped by eight percent to 8,713 this year, while the latter decreased by four percent to 8,255, according to The Telegraph.

The German language is followed by Russian and Polish.

A foreign student learns calligraphy from a Chinese middle school student in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

近年来，随着中国的经济发展，汉语比德语更受欢迎。年轻人也会思考到底什么语言在将来会更实用。

Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council (ISC) said that due to the economic power of Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, students were encouraged to study German, but now China has emerged as the world’s fastest growing economy.

2017年一项针对一千多名未成年学生家长的调查显示，在英国家长心目中，汉语是印欧语系之外最重要的语言。一半以上的家长认为，学习汉语不仅仅可以帮助学生了解东方文化，更有助于未来事业的发展。根据中国国家汉办粗略估算，目前中国（含港澳台）之外，全球学习使用汉语的人数已经超过1亿，其中包括6000万海外华人华侨，以及4000万各国主流社会的学习和使用者。

Chinese language and culture have been accessible to students around the world thanks to the spread of Confucius Institutes.

According to the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), as of 2017, some 100 million people, excluding native speakers, use Chinese globally, while Chinese teaching centers have surpassed 70,000.

Candidates take part in a HSK test

中文也逐渐成为韩国人从小学习的语言。在韩国，以中文和英语进行双语教学的私立幼儿园以及单以中文教学的私立幼儿园每年都在增加。很多私立小学也把中文列为学校的必修课。

South Korea has the largest population of Chinese language learners in the world with the number estimated at around 10.6 million. Last year alone, over 170,000 people signed up for Chinese language tests, like the HSK, a Chinese proficiency test.

2010年，联合国新闻部宣布启动联合国语言日，旨在庆贺多种语言的使用和文化多样性，并促进6种官方语言在联合国的平等使用。其中，新闻部将中文日定在了农历二十四节气之“谷雨”，以纪念“中华文字始祖”仓颉创造汉文字。而在联合国设立中文日之后，许多国家纷纷开始了学习中文的热潮。

The United Nations (UN) in 2010 suggested a Chinese Language Day which falls on April 20 each year to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote the equal use of all official languages.