The Putonghua Teachers' Association in Hong Kong said Sunday that plans are on hand to run Putonghua courses for foreigners here due to a sharp rise of inquiries for the courses in the wake of China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Virginia Chan, the chairwoman of the association told Xinhua after the final contest of an inter-school Putonghua contest titled "Contemporary Poetry and Prose Recital Competition" jointly run by the association and the Association of Chinese Culture of Hong Kong.

"These days after China's entry into the WTO, our teachers and I have been receiving calls from commercial entities, such as banks and business corporations asking if we offer any group tuition to foreigners. So we are planning to open new courses, as some of our teachers are already teaching Putonghua in the English language," she said.

However, she stopped short of giving a timetable as to when such course would start, adding that part of the course also depend on the successful application for the Language Fund administered by the Education and Manpower Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative government.

Gao Gunter, chairman of the Association of Chinese Culture of Hong Kong commented on the importance of reciting proses and poetry in the process of learning the language, saying that language helps with enhancing stronger reading comprehension skills and ability to appreciate Chinese culture.

(Xinhua News Agency May 5, 2002)