More than half of Chinese people can speak Putonghua (standard Chinese), while nearly 70 percent of urbanites are fluent in the spoken form, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education.

The survey, which canvassed 500,000 people, showed that 53.06 percent of them can effectively communicate verbally in Putonghua. The fluency rate in cities was 66 percent while in rural areas it was 45 percent.

Although the Chinese share the same written form Chinese ideograms or characters, which have been in use for 3,000 years the pronunciation of identical characters differs from region to region. This means people who cannot communicate verbally can do so by writing Chinese characters which have the same literal meaning.

Putonghua, which literally means "common talk", is taught in every school in the country and is China's standard lingua franca.

Most Chinese can speak in the two forms. They can speak putonghua and the dialect of their home region.

The survey also found that 56.76 percent of Chinese men can speak Putonghua, while 49.22 percent of women speak it. About 70 percent of people between the age of 15 and 29 speak Putonghua, while only 30.97 percent between the age of 60 and 69 can speak it.

The survey was conducted in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

Zhao Qinping, vice-minister of education, said on Tuesday that the ministry would focus on promoting Putonghua in the rural areas this year. Lessons in Putonghua will be included in skills training for farmers wanting to migrate to cities to find work.

University student volunteers are also being encouraged to go to the countryside to help rural primary and middle school teachers improve their Putonghua.

Source: China Daily