北京为寻求全球影响力，在学校引进世界各地的语言 [美国媒体]

Shoppers and students browse through the All Sages Bookstore, near Peking University in Beijing, in this March, 2018, file photo. Across China, universities, high schools and even middle schools are rushing to offer dozens of courses in foreign languages.

2018年3月文件照，购物者和学生在北京大学附近的万圣书园看书。在中国的大学、高中甚至中学都在争相开设几十门外语课程。

When Beijing International Studies University opened its doors in 1964, students could choose from 10 languages to study. It stayed that way for half a century.

北京第二外国语大学创立于1964年，半个世纪以来，学生们可以从10种语言中选择学习。

Things didn’t change until 2014, a year after Chinese President Xi Jinping ascended to power with a determination to bolster China’s presence on the world stage. Now, after a rapid expansion, the university (BISU) teaches 26 languages. Its newest additions include Czech, Hebrew and Estonian.

直到2014年，一年后，决心增强中国在世界舞台上的地位。如今，中国国际地位迅速提升，北二外现教授26种外国语，最新增加的语种有捷克语，希伯来语和爱沙尼亚语。

Across China, universities, high schools and even middle schools are rushing to do the same, amid a flurry of new language instruction that reflects the fast-changing nature of China’s role in the world. At schools today, students can enroll in languages as diverse as Rundi (from Burundi), Cook Islands Maori, Divehi (from the Maldives) and Bislama (from Vanuatu).

在中国各地，大学、高中甚至中学都在争先恐后地采取同样的行动，新语言教学的兴起，反映了中国这个角色在世界上的瞬速转变。在如今的学校里，学生们可以学习各种不同的语言，比如：隆迪语(来自布隆迪)、库克群岛毛利语、迪维希语(来自马尔代夫)和比斯拉马语(来自瓦努阿图)。

China’s foreign policy was once defined by a desire to maintain a low profile and leave the world’s business to others. Its new lust for languages is a vivid example of how that inward focus is shifting.

中国的外交政策曾被定义为韬光养晦，把世界事务留给其他国家。它对各地语言新的渴望就是一个生动的例子，说明了这种内部焦点是如何转换的。

At Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), administrators are pushing to teach 100 languages by 2020. Though it remains well short of that goal today, if it succeeds it will rival institutions such as the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Cultures in Paris, which teaches 103 languages and cultures, boasting that it “is in a class of its own.”

在北京外国语大学(BFSU)，学校负责人正在落实至2020年教授100种语言这一项行动。尽管它目前仍远未达到这一目标，但如果成功的话，它将与巴黎的国家东方语言和文化研究所等机构竞争。该研究所教授103种语言和文化，自夸“没有人能与我们相比”。

For China’s leaders, it’s a question of building linguistic capacity to match its global ambitions. China’s investments in other countries in the past two years alone exceeded US$290-billion. Chinese diplomats and political heads have taken an increasingly assertive role in mediating global affairs, while the Chinese military and media have extended their reach far beyond the country’s borders. Meanwhile, China’s Belt and Road Initiative − with its vision of Chinese-built networks of roads, ports, and trains connecting Asia, Europe and Africa – is an attempt to position Beijing at the economic centre of dozens of countries.

对中国领导人来说，培养语言能力符合全球野心是一个需要考虑的问题。仅在过去两年，中国在其他国家的投资就超过2900亿美元。中国外交官和政治领导人在调解全球事务中的角色越来越强硬。而中国军队和媒体则把他们的势力范围扩大到了国外。同时，中国的一带一路计划——带着中国人的愿景建立道路，港口，火车网络连接亚洲，欧洲和非洲，试图将北京作为数十个国家的经济中心。

What it means is that, at BISU today, “we don’t need to spend much time convincing students to learn things like Latvian,” said university vice-president Li Xiaomu. The city of Beijing, he added, wants to become a centre for culture and international communication. “It takes a lot of foreign language talent to make that dream come true,” he said.

这意味着，在今天的北二外，“我们不需要花很多时间说服学生学习拉脱维亚语之类的东西，”大学副校长李晓牧说。他补充说道，北京市希望成为文化和国际交流的中心。“要实现这个梦想，需要大量的外语人才。”

Such a vision is relatively recent.

这样的愿景是最近几年才有的。

The Chinese government has in recent years spent heavily on teaching the world to speak Mandarin, pouring billions of dollars into hundreds of so-called Confucius centres dedicated to Chinese instruction in foreign countries. Confucius Institutes in more than 142 countries have trained more than seven million students since 2004, according to government statistics.

近年来，中国政府在世界普通话的传播上投入了大量资金，向数百个致力于对外汉语教学的所谓孔子学院投入数十亿美元。据政府统计，自2004年以来，孔子学院在多达142个国家培训了超过700多万学生。

At home, meanwhile, China has long seen English as its passport to the world. In the mid-1990s, English became one of the three pillars of the annual gaokao university placement exams, alongside Chinese and math. The emphasis on English has been so great that Yang Rui, director of the Comparative Education Research Center at the University of Hong Kong, wrote in a 2014 academic article: “China is home to more speakers of English than any other country.”

与此同时，在国内，中国长期以来一直把英语视为国际语言通行证。上世纪90年代中期，英语成为每年高考和大学入学考试的三大支柱之一，仅次于语文和数学。对英语的重视程度如此之高，以至于香港大学比较教育研究中心主任杨瑞在2014年的一篇学术文章中写道：“中国国内讲英语的人数比其他任何国家都要多。”

He also said: “Proficiency in English has been widely regarded as a national, as well as a personal asset.”

他还说道：“精通英语普遍被认为是国家的，也是个人的资产”

But in the past few years, China has turned its attention to a much broader range of tongues, driven partly by the globe-spanning vision of the the Belt and Road Initiative.

但在过去几年，中国把注意力转向了更广多的语种，这在一定程度上是由一带一路倡议的全球愿景驱动的。

“The number of English students is declining, because we need to cultivate more high-end talented students who will contribute more to our country’s development,” said Chen Jie, who teaches Arabic at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU).

“学英语的人数正在下降，因为我们需要培养更多的高端人才来为国家的发展做出更大贡献。”在上海外国语大学教阿拉伯语的陈洁如是说。

“The introduction of Belt and Road marks an iconic turning point,” he said.

“一带一路的推出是一个标志性的转折点，”他说。

SISU now has courses in 30 languages – its most recent additions include Swedish and Ukrainian – but is working to teach the languages of each of the nearly 70 Belt and Road countries.

上海外国语大学目前开设了30种语言的课程-最近增加的课程包括瑞典语和乌克兰语-但目前正致力于教授的有近70个一带一路国家的语言。

Elsewhere, major non-English languages are gaining a higher profile. More than 50 universities in China today offer Arabic instruction, Prof. Chen said. A decade ago, it “was no more than a dozen.”

在其他地方，主要的非英语语言正在获得更高的关注度。陈教授说，目前中国有50所大学提供阿拉伯语教学。十年前，学习的人不超过十来个。

“China needs this language more and more,” he said − a sentiment equally true of other languages now on offer.

“中国越来越需要这种语言，”他说，“现在对其他语言也有同样急切的需求。”

Not long ago, linguistic skills might have been useful for a Chinese graduate primarily in securing work as a diplomat. Now, foreign fluency is a ticket to jobs in fields as diverse as railroad construction and journalism.

不久前，语言技能对于一名中国毕业生找一份外交官的工作是有用的，现在，流利的外语是在铁路建设和新闻等领域找到工作的一张通行证。

”Most men majoring in Persian want to work in government and big firms. Women show more interest in jobs related to culture and literature,” said Zhou Si, at BISU where Persian is one of the newly introduced courses. The university now teaches the languages of three-quarters of the countries in central and eastern Europe.

“大多数波斯语专业的男性都想在政府和大公司工作。女性则对与文化和文学相关的工作表现出更多的兴趣，”北二外的周思说，波斯语是北京第二外国语学院新开设的课程之一。这所大学现在教授中欧和东欧四分之三的国家的语言.

For universities, however, the rapid government-dictated pace of introducing new languages has created its own problems. The will to teach has been tempered by difficulties in securing good instructors and teaching aids. At BISU, Persian has a single textbook. The Romanian textbook dates back to 2002.

然而，对于大学来说，由政府指示的引进新语言的快速步伐已经给自己造成了问题。在获得好的教师和教具方面的困难，使教学意愿收到了影响。在北二外，波斯语只有一本教科书，而罗马尼亚语的教科书在2002年才出版。

“Teaching materials are too limited,” said Liu Jianrong, a professor of Romanian.

“教材太有限了，”罗马尼亚语教授刘建荣说。

Government ambitions have also exceeded market realities. The Romanian program accepted its first of cohort of students in the fall of 2017. It may be two or three years before it brings in another class.

政府的野心也超出了市场现实。 罗马尼亚计划于2017年秋季接受了首批学生。 再招一个罗马尼亚语班的话可能要花两三年时间。

If ”there aren’t that many job opportunities, the school could consider postponing the date of next admission,” said Prof. Liu.

刘教授说：“如果没有那么多的工作机会的话，学校可以考虑推迟下一次入学的日期。”

For those students who do sign up, studying in China has its advantages: tuition fees are low at home and government scholarships support later studies abroad.

对于那些报名的学生来说，在中国学习有其优势：国内学费低，政府奖学金支持以后出国留学。

”China is increasingly intertwined with other countries around the world,” said Zhang Wenfeng, a BISU student. “Language is an important factor for a country to become internationalized.”  “

中国与世界其他国家的交流日益紧密，”北京第二外国语学院的学生张文峰说，“语言是一个国家走向国际化的一个重要因素。” 

For educational leaders, however, the new challenge is to improve not just their range of courses, but also how well they teach. BISU is slowing its expansion to improve its teaching teams and methods, while also recruiting language students at an early age. It is promoting a seven-year education process that begins in high school and includes a total of four years of studying abroad. Another project involves teaching lesser-known languages in middle schools.

然而，对于教育领导者来说，新的挑战不仅仅是改进他们的课程范围，还在于提高他们的教学水平。北二外正在放慢其扩展速度，以改进其教学团队和教学方法，同时也在招收年纪尚小的语言生。它正在推动七年的教育进程，从高中开始，包括总共四年的出国留学。另一个项目是在中学教授不太知名的语言。

“Talent cultivation is something that requires a long time to achieve,” said Mr. Li, the university vice-president.

“人才的培养需要花很长时间，”大学副校长李先生说。

“As an old Chinese saying goes, it takes 10 years to nurture a tree, but 100 years to train a person.”

“正如中国的一句古话所说，十年树木百年树人。”

With reporting by Alexandra Li

Alexandra Li报道