Mandarin Has Become the Most Popular Foreign Language in New Zealand’s Primary Schools

Mandarin has a massive number of speakers in the world. Now in New Zealand, Mandarin is set to overtake Spanish and French and becomes the most popular foreign language in primary schools.

As reported by 3 News, More than a hundred Chinese government-funded teachers will spend this year giving lessons at 240 primary schools. Last year French was the most popular foreign language, followed by Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and German. 8000 primary school students studied Chinese five years ago. In the year of 2014 it was more than 24,000.

The Kids Mandarin Program is funded mainly by the Chinese government, so schools don't need to pay for the teachers. Tony Browne from the New Zealand China Council says it's all about making China better known on a world scale. He says: "It is part of what's often termed soft power. It is making China better known internationally."

Mandarin is becoming more and more popular in primary schools. In the meanwhile, Mandarin's also the fastest growing foreign language at secondary schools.

New Concept Mandarin provides Chinese language teaching service for kids. The Mandarin Courses for Kids aim to cultivate children’s interest in learning Chinese and helps them build good learning habits. The program covers all four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, and is divided into various levels from beginner all the way to advanced.