Chinese language, culture on the upswing in Ukraine

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Chinese language, culture on the upswing in Ukraine

By Alona Liashenko (Xinhua) 08:29, October 11, 2013

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As a finalist of a Chinese proficiency competition, Kirill Chuyko is far from satisfied with the result and planning to head for Beijing to polish his Chinese language skills there.

"In today's business environment, you need to speak Chinese fluently if you are going to set up a successful business or get a good job," said the Ukrainian man, who have taken part in the 12th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students in Changsha, Hunan Province.

Thanks to his good Chinese speaking skills, Chuyko, in his early twenties, got a handful of job offers from Ukrainian private firms. He, however, chose to work for a Chinese company.

"I like to work with the Chinese, because they are very decent people. They always put the human relationship in the first place. The whole team works as brothers and sisters -- harmoniously, vigorously, with enthusiasm and inspiration," Chuyko said.

Growing up in a small industrial town in eastern Ukraine, Chuyko had no opportunity to learn Chinese in the school. He started learning Mandarin in university when he was 17 and now he is fluent in reading and writing up to 2,500 characters.

"You are never too old to start learning. In addition to my university classes, I used the free Internet courses, studied Chinese songs and watched movies in Chinese," said Chuyko, one of the about 2,000 Ukrainian language-learners who choose Mandarin as a second foreign language after English.

Nationwide, just around a dozen of Ukrainian public schools now offer Chinese classes and optional courses for kids. However, hundreds of Ukrainian adults and children learn Mandarin during group courses in private language schools.

To promote Chinese, the government is mulling a pilot program to open specialized schools in Ukraine with the Mandarin language of tuition in the near future.

At the university level, the Chinese language is now on the upswing with eight higher educational establishments offering it.

University applicants tend to choose Chinese scholarship, instead of German, Spanish or other languages that have long been more popular in Ukraine, as they realize that China is becoming the top player on the world stage, lecturers said.

According to Maria Andrietz, a Chinese instructor at Kiev University of International Relations, many Ukrainian students see Mandarin as a strategic language, which opens a great opportunity for professional development.

"Students learn Chinese because they consider it as very promising and influential. Some students dream to visit or even to live in China," Andrietz told Xinhua.