News Letter
Weather
Community
English home Forum Photo Gallery Features Newsletter Archive   About US Help Site Map
China
World
Opinion
Business
Sci-Edu
Culture/Life
Sports
Photos
 Services
- Newsletter
- News Archive
- Feedback
- Weather Forecast
 Search
Advanced
 About China
- China at a glance
- Constitution
- CPC & state organs
- Chinese leadership
- Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping

Home >> Sci-Edu
UPDATED: 14:05, June 25, 2004
Chinese intellectuals rebel against foreign language tests
font size    

Chinese intellectuals have been grumbling about foreign language tests, which they are required to pass to obtain higher professional titles.

"I'm 54 now and don't want to torture myself with these novel English words, so I will not participate in any foreign languages test for professional titles in the future," said Wang Tongxi, engineer with the biochemistry and cellular biology institute under Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Wang aims to win the title of senior engineer and registered in this year's foreign languages test on April 11. He has been struggling to learn by heart over 6,000 English words in the past months with only less than five hours of sleep each day, but still failed to answer most of the questions on the exam paper.

After graduating from Beijing University in 1978, Wang has been studying neural polypeptide and published over 10 authoritative academic papers.

Most exam participants don't use foreign languages in their daily work and they forget the language even after having passed the tests with high grades, said Wang Jianmin, director of public management department with Beijing Normal University.

In China, professional titles, such as senior engineer, professor and lecturer, are generally hinged with not only honors,but also some financial benefits.

The examinations can not justify experts' professional levels and those with less language talent are not necessarily less gifted in other studies, said Wang who has been studying foreign languages teaching and application for years.

China began a foreign language study campaign in the 1980s, which has heated up recently.

The campaign is overheated and needs to be cooled, said Zhou Guoqiang, deputy dean of the foreign languages college in ShanghaiJiaotong University.

Experts advocate elimination of foreign language tests for someprofessionals.

Foreign languages tests should be applied only to those workingin departments or companies related with overseas affairs and experts in other fields should be exempt from the tests, such as professors of ancient Chinese and herbalist doctors, said Shen Ronghua, researcher with Shanghai Public Administration and Human Resources Research Institute.

Source: Xinhua

Print friendly Version Comments on the story Recommend to friends Save to disk


   Recommendation
- China Forum
- PD Newsletter
- People's Comment
- Most Popular
 Related News
- English-only teaching not allowed for kids

- Chinese becomes No.3 language in Canada

- Chinese economic development pushes Chinese language education ahead in the world


Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved