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30 Million Foreigners Learning Chinese

One interesting side effect of China's dramatic economic development is that more people from foreign governments, educational institutions and enterprises are learning to speak Chinese.

Mastering four tones, word order and measure words was once thought as difficult as climbing Qomolangma. And it will certainly take longer.

To strengthen communications, exchanges, understanding and co-operation with other countries in teaching the language, the first World Chinese Conference will be held in Beijing July 20 -- 22, Ministry of Education officials announced on June 15. It is estimated that more than 30 million foreigners around the world are now studying Chinese.

About 2,500 universities and colleges in more than 100 countries have established Chinese-language programmes. Some primary and middle schools have also introduced Chinese-language programmes, said Xu Lin, director of the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.