ACCRA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Interest in Chinese language studies has been increasing among Ghanaian students, an education official said Friday.

Emelia Agyei-Mensah, a registrar of the University of Ghana, made the remarks during a Chinese language contest held at the Confucius Institute at the university.

The trend is visible as there are a high number of students opting to major in the Chinese language at the undergraduate level in the premier university in the country, Agyei-Mensah said.

"Here at the University of Ghana, efforts have been made to augment the study of Chinese by creating more combined major programs which include Chinese as a subject," she said.

"Currently, undergraduate student enrollment in the Chinese language is well over 1,000. I know that similar efforts are underway in other public universities in the country with the establishment of more Confucius Institutes," she added.

The registrar described as "impressive" the proficiency the contestants showed in the competition.

"I am impressed how our students have picked up the Chinese language and culture and performed as if they were born in China or were Chinese. I was wondering how they could do it and I am so impressed," she said.

During the competition, the Chinese major students also delivered splendid performances, including singing, choreography, and martial arts, setting the audience agog.

Herbert Appiatu-Danquah, who performed martial arts in addition to his speech, said the study of the Chinese language also increased the prospects for the learners and helped improve cultural cooperation between Ghana and China.

Julia Duncan, another Chinese major, told Xinhua, "I chose the Chinese language because I wanted to pursue international relations and Chinese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world."

She said her confidence in the future of Chinese majors has been bolstered as China develops rapidly and the China-Africa cooperation deepens. Enditem

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