Beijing's successful bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games has
encouraged both the government and inhabitants of the city to learn
English. But the capital finds it lacks foreign teachers to offer
the language training courses. The market for teaching English is
set to grow steadily over the next seven years, according to latest
issue of Beijing Today.
In
fact, the English training market of the capital has been booming
over the past decade as young people are seeking better jobs and
opportunities to study abroad.
After winning the 2008 Olympic bid, the municipal government placed
an order requiring its governmental officials to study English,
while ordinary inhabitants should learn some English for
communication with foreigners.
According to the order, municipal officials must take a three-month
extensive training course. The municipal government even set up an
office to coordinate and monitor the language training campaign.
Each official will get a certificate as long as he or she passes
the examination.
Meanwhile, millions of everyday English dialogue prints have been
sent to most of the service sectors in the city like taxi
companies, hotels, department stores and shopping centers, as well
as companies and entities of various industries. All employees of
these sectors and industries are also asked to learn some basic
English for communication with foreigners in the city.
All the above measures indicate a potentially huge language
training industry in the making. But the city lacks foreign
language teachers both in quality and quantity. Foreigners, native
English speakers in particular, will be in high demand over the
next seven years.
Currently in China, the recruitment of foreigners is bound by a
number of restrictions and procedures. There are only 185
institutions in Beijing certified to recruit foreigners, of which
122 are under the control of the municipality and the rest are
controlled by the central government. According to the statistics
from the central and local governments, there are only 1,000 or so
foreign experts working in schools, educational training centers,
media, medical and health care organizations and sports researching
institutions. But in fact, more foreigners are working illegally as
teachers. The local government is encouraging both recruiters and
employees to undertake the necessary procedures and legalize their
status.
It
is believed that even if the current foreigners legalize their
status, the city still lacks vast quantities of foreign teachers in
government owned schools and universities, as well as privately
owned language centers.
( 09/07/2001)