China to World: Too few of you speak Chinese!

I found this article amusing:
China worries too few foreigners learning Chinese.

It seems that 1.3 billion native speakers combined with an estimated 40 million learners around the world isn't enough for the Middle Kingdom.

"Though the desire to learn Chinese is very high, there is a lack of teachers and teaching materials," she added, referring specifically to the Confucius Institute.

This is somewhat ironic considering the Communist Party once condemned Confucius' teachings and tried to wipe them from the collective memory. Today, China endeavors to help foreigners understand China via the 'Confucius Institute'.


Or perhaps a better question is, what is soft power?

"What is soft power? The best soft power is to let people know you, understand you, love you." he said. "Less than one percent of U.S. students study Chinese. With a situation like that, it's impossible for China to raise its soft power."

To view to original article from Reuters:
< http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE52B1UW20090312 >

For further information on the Confucius Institute:
Confucius Institute Online


If you would like to learn some basic Chinese:

Nciku.com (an excellent dictionary but also has lessons which include pinyin and sound)

Read and Write (for the more serious student interested in the written language)

Survival Chinese (sound bytes, unfortunately only a female voice available).

WenLin (software that can be used as a dictionary, what's unique about this program is it shows how the characters evolved from ancient glyphs)