China launches website offering free Chinese lessons

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Fwd from edling at ccat.sas.upenn.edu

 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4032890.html

 SHANGHAI, China - China launched a Web site, www.linese.com, today
offering free Chinese lessons and materials to promote the study and use
of the language abroad. The site includes audio-visual presentations,
interactive exercises and advice for teachers of Mandarin Chinese, with
photographs and descriptions of cultural icons such as the Great Wall,
kung fu actor Jackie Chan and basketball star Yao Ming. Many of the
exercises touch on China's mythical and imperial past, including practice
sentences such as "how can you be a hero if you are unarmed" and "I find
that Tibetans like worshipping heroes".

China is keen to expand its cultural influence along with its growing
economic power, and is also setting up a network of "Confucius Institutes"
around the world to promote its culture. The Web site is only in Chinese
and English, but versions in Japanese and Korean are being developed, the
official Xinhua news agency said. More than 30 million people are now
learning Chinese as a foreign language and more than 2,500 universities in
100 countries offer Chinese courses, the Ministry of Education reported.


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