Chinese Language Teachers Association of Greater New York (CLTA-GNY) held "The Third President Day and Seminar" on 6 November. He Yong, President of CLTA-GNY, noted that Americans were becoming more and more enthusiastic in learning Chinese. Apart from the reason of the increasing number of the Chinese immigrants in the US, China's uprise on the international political and economic arena is also a reason for foreigners' strong interest in Chinese. It is reported that the theme of the current seminar is "How can the education of the Chinese language be popularized in the mainstream of society of the USA?".

A report on a local newspaper shows that Chinese has become the second widely used foreign language in the US next to Spanish only according to the statistics of the US census. Currently, there are much more people who speak Chinese than those who speak French, Germen and Korean, which were quite popular among the immigrants in the US in 1990s.

You Deping, vice president of Windsor Institute of Science and Technology in New Jersey, said that she was considering starting a Chinese language course in the institute. She reckons that the Chinese would dominate the 21st century and the Americans are in dire need to learn Chinese besides French and Spanish. It��s a good way to know China's 5,000 years of culture by learning Chinese, added You.

By People's Daily Online