United Nations Chinese Language Day: Mandarin gains more popularity at the world body

World
Europe

02:57

Ni hao! If you've ever considered picking up Chinese as a foreign language, you're in good company. At the United Nations, interest in learning Mandarin as a foreign language has steadily grown over the years, as has demand for UN news in Chinese. And as the world body marks UN Chinese Language Day, our UN correspondent Liling Tan looks at what's driving this language trend.

Mandarin is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. And as China's visibility expands globally, so too has the interest in learning Mandarin as a foreign language.

SHEILA PEROSA OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL "I am Italian."

Sheila Perosa works at the U.N. Secretary General's press office, and is enrolled in the U.N.'s Chinese Language program.

SHEILA PEROSA OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL "I've studied for five years. I like Chinese culture very much. I also really like taichi."

One of her teachers is Dr. Yong Ho, the coordinator of the UN China Study Programme, and previously the UN's Chinese Language Supervisor. Dr. Ho says since 2002, he has seen interest in Mandarin at the UN increase nearly three-fold.

DR. YONG HO, COORDINATOR UN CHINA STUDY PROGRAMME "One of the reasons is the role that China plays in international affairs. Particularly in the setting of the U.N., China is one of the permanent members of the Security Council and there's a strong interest among staff members and diplomats in Chinese society, in Chinese economics and in Chinese politics."

The demand for UN news in Chinese has also grown dramatically, says Li Maoqi, who leads the Chinese News Unit at the UN's Department of Public Information.

LI MAOQI CHIEF OF CHINESE UNIT, UN NEWS "We have more and more people who are using the Internet, we have more and more people who want to understand what China is doing here at the UN, particularly in the perspective of the Chinese audience, they want to use their own language to find out what the UN is operating, what the Chinese delegation is doing here at the UN through their own language."

Mandarin is among eight languages used by the UN's News Services to provide UN news content to the world — the six official UN languages, as well as Portuguese and Kiswahili.

LILING TAN NEW YORK "The ability to communicate in multiple languages is a key tenet of the United Nations, and in this time of deep divisions over multiple crises — from Syria to Iran to the Korean peninsula — the belief is that speaking each other's languages can make a difference in bridging differences. Liling Tan, CGTN, New York."