In the eyes of many Bangladeshis, China is a more developed country. In order to know more about China, many local people have taken great interest in learning Chinese.

Dhaka University is the oldest and best university in Bangladesh. The Chinese Department of the Institute of Modern Languages within the university has provided an opportunity to learn Chinese.

Anwar Hossain, director of the institute, said in an interviewed with Xinhua recently that the Chinese Department which established in 1974, is one of the oldest departments in the institute.

Anwar said his institute now has 13 departments including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, English, French, Italian, Pertian, Spanish, Turkish, Bengli and Arabic.

He said China's economy has developed in a great speed. Many Bangladeshi people are now doing business with China. They think that it is very important to learn Chinese.

Anwar said many people came and wanted to be admitted to the Chinese Department, but because of shortage of teachers they cannot be accepted.

There are only 2 teachers in Chinese Department, one is Afzal Hossain from Bangladesh, the other is Yang Jinxiang from Beijing Languages University.

Except shortage of teachers, Anwar said, the Chinese Department is lack of infrastructure. "For example, we have no teacher's office, no lab, no dictionary which make teaching very difficult. I hope the Chinese government can give some help on this."

When talking about Chinese teacher Yang Jinxiang, Anwar said that Teacher Yang's teaching ability is very good. She behaves well and very gentle and polite. She is very acceptable by the students.

"Though Yang doesn't know English and Bengli, she can make the students understand by her body language," Anwar added.

Teacher Yang came to Dhaka University in July last year. When she first came here, she liked it and liked her students, she said.

Most of the students who are learning Chinese are from poor families. Many students said their great dream is to visit China. So they are very diligent and hard-working in learning Chinese.

In Institute of Modern Languages, the number of Chinese scholarships are the most. Teacher Yang said, this proved China has become a strong and rich country and she is very proud of being a Chinese.

Afzal studied in Beijing Languages University from 1997 to 2001. He can speak very fluent Chinese.

Afzal said he planned to read post-degree in China next year, majoring in trade, and he wanted to make contribution to the economic exchange between the two countries.

Papiya and Shaker are the best students in the Chinese Department. They all got this year's Chinese scholarships. They are leaving for China in August.

Papiya will study in Shanghai Fudan University and Shaker will study in Shanghai Normal University.

She felt Chinese is very difficult to learn when she first learned Chinese, Papiya said, but with the help of Teacher Yang she learns Chinese much easy.

Shaker just graduated from Dhaka University Economy Department before learning Chinese. He said China is a great country. So he must learn Chinese and learn from Chinese people.

Papiya and Shaker can speak very good of Chinese though they have only learned Chinese for 8 months.

There are 136 students in the Chinese Department of the University, Director Anwar said, adding that applicants have far exceeded the number.

Source: Xinhua