The figures also indicate more than 46,000 foreigners have come to study Chinese in China. Teaching Chinese as a foreign language has gained momentum after China's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its successful bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, according to Yan Meihua, the national office's director general.

Yan made the remarks at Monday's opening ceremony of the 2002 International Seminar on the Development of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.

It was jointly organized in Beijing by Yan's office and Beijing Language and Cultural University.

She attributed Chinese language fever across the world to the country's growing influence in international affairs, the rise of its economic status as well as the widespread ethnic Chinese population.

"Surging Chinese language fever brings about big opportunities as well as challenges for Chinese teaching, including in teaching modes, teaching materials and resources. (Such challenges) have given rise to the international seminar," Yan said.

Yan added that such a seminar aims to draw from the experiences of foreign experts who have taught Chinese as a foreign language, and thus open new vistas for its development in the new century.

Yan's office has worked out a plan to organize experts in the field to compile teaching materials in the coming two years.

The materials will be designed to meet the demand of various countries and regions and will come in such languages as English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Indonesian, Korean, Spanish and Arabic, said the director general.

Yan added that a programme to set up Chinese language centres in foreign countries is under way. Priority has been given to the Republic of Korea (ROK), Australia, the United States and Canada.

Peter Kupfur, a participant in the seminar from the University of Mainz in Germany, sees huge potential in teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

He said that most of the people who study Chinese as a foreign language have poor professional business writing skills, though they have improved a lot in reading, listening and speaking after years of studying in China.

Beijing Language and Cultural University, as a leading academic centre for teaching Chinese as a foreign language in the world, has been making consistent efforts.

More than 60,000 overseas students from 167 countries and regions have studied the Chinese language at the university, and at least 6,000 students from 130-plus countries and regions are enrolled each year, according to Wang Lujiang, director of the School Affairs Committee of the university.

The university is striving to open schools in other countries to teach more people in the world about China through studying the Chinese language, said Wang.

(China Daily July 23, 2002)