Language Lessons: Why German Pupils and Students Do not Learn Chinese

Marisabel, who is now 16 years old and is attending a Waldorf School north of Münster, attended a Chinese elementary school in Beijing from Grade 1 to Grade 3. She was there as the daughter of a German embassy member and she says today that three years of Chinese school was a good time for her.

So Marisabel would love to learn Chinese today. But within Westerkappeln, where she now lives, no school has the language on offer. And that, although their state North Rhine-Westphalia is absolute champion among the German provinces for Chinese lessons: Here learn about 2000 students Chinese - out of a total of barely more than 5000 young people in Germany.

Nevertheless, Marisabel did not find anything. Chinese is classified as a "small language" in the German education system, teachers explained. The "big languages" are for example English and French.

That's exactly what bothers Andrea Frenzel, a researcher at the MERICS Institute for China Studies in Berlin: "How can one call the language spoken by most people in the world a small language?" Asks Frenzel. In a recent study, she systematically dealt with Chinese lessons at German schools. The result: since 2012, the number of students choosing Chinese as a school subject has stagnated at 5,000 students nationwide.

The number grew steadily in the years before, even from a Chinese boom in German schools was in the meantime the speech. But it was over quickly: "China is considered by many to be far away from us," observes Frenzel.

Chinese is not as difficult as many think

In France, on the other hand, the number of Chinese students soared to 40,000 in recent years - almost eight times as many as in Germany. The Chinese trade association is responsible for the German education policy: "The problem is primarily in the federal system of Germany, where each state has its own framework plans and training structures to develop," says Andreas Guder, the chairman of the association. He seldom meets persons in the competent state authorities who are prepared to engage in Chinese as a subject, instead "there are great reservations in many states on the administrative side," according to Guder, who teaches Sinology at the University of Göttingen.

At the federal level there are certainly attempts to make German schools feel more like China. The Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Culture and the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) did not call for a China-Elan joint conference until May this year. "We do not all have to become experts on China, but Germany would do well to get to know China again and to move closer to this huge country," said Thuringia's Education Minister and KMK President Helmut Holter at the conference.

But the sinologist Ole Döring of the Free University Berlin considers that pure announcement policy. "Political support in education is still largely confined to short-term economic and research benefits, and it is hard to develop a sustainable Chinese infrastructure in schools," says Döring.

"China's public image does not live up to its meaning"

But are only the politicians really guilty? Researcher Frenzel points to an old prejudice that Chinese is "particularly difficult to learn". Her counter-pleading: "That's not true!" Finally, her studies would also show that Chinese lessons in Germany, where he takes place, is very successful. Many Chinese students, according to Frenzel, would reach level B2, just one step below what one usually expects from a graduate student in sinology. Döring from the FU Berlin is not surprised: "It is a myth that Chinese is especially difficult to learn, which is a question of learning type and teaching competence, as is the case with Latin, French and English."

The latter has only recently been strengthened in Germany by three courses in Göttingen, Tübingen and Bochum, which offer a Chinese degree for future teachers. 30 new Chinese teachers are trained this way every year. That's enough if, as before, only a few thousand students want to choose Chinese.

But: "If we almost all speak no Chinese, we leave the interpretation, understanding and interpretation of everything Chinese to the Chinese," warns Döring. Among the students, the aversion is almost even greater than among students: Only 500 new Sinology students counts all Germany every year.

The actual cause research for the low interest in China young Germans is still pending. "The picture of China itself does not contribute to the motivation of teachers and students to make the effort," says Döring. There is a general ignorance to fear of the land. Expert Guder puts it this way: "The image of China in the German public does not do justice to its significance for the world economy of the 21st century."