The program, offered by Shanghai Radio and the Shanghai Administration of Culture, Radio, Film & TV, will use Ah Fu Gen, a household name among locals, to draw students.

The rustic name has been known to the public since the late 1960s when the program was introduced. He is a fictitious middle-aged man, who discusses domestic affairs with his audiences, which was made up of rural citizens to begin with but has extended to people all over town in recent years.

"Although the subjects and the hosts have varied for years, the program is always known for its authentic Shanghai dialect," said Yuan Hui, a director at Shanghai Radio.

The current two hosts of "Ah Fu Gen" give the program an advantage over similar training classes in town, Yuan said.

Learning Shanghai dialect has become quite popular in recent years, especially among job seekers from out of town. In spite of the local government's efforts to popularize mandarin, locals still prefer to use the dialect at home and in the office.

According to Yuan, the program will be open to foreigners even if they don't have any mandarin background.

"We will have different levels of classes for foreigners, even those who can't say a word in mandarin. We have bilingual teachers for them," said Liu Shougong, a retired teacher of Chinese from East China Normal University.

But Shanghai dialect, even for Chinese, is a difficult tongue to imitate.

For this, Liu said they will use international phonetic symbols to teach foreign students proper pronunciation.

There will be weekend classes and night classes on offer. Each program will last for three months with a tuition of below 1,000 yuan ($120).

While it is still questionable how many foreigners will be interested, at least one theater producer from Australia said he is interested.

"It will be very interesting. The local dialect will help me make closer relationships," said Barry Plews.

"My colleagues think it is inconvenient to talk to me in English, and they encourage me to learn mandarin. But if it is possible, I would like to join the class for Shanghai dialect learning. It will be a lot of fun," said Plews.

(Eastday.com June 25, 2003)