VOA慢速英語:南非將中國普通話納入其學校課程表

South Africa Introduces Mandarin into Its School Curriculum

南非將普通話納入其學校學習課程

From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.

美國之音慢速英語，這里是教育報道。

South Africa has 11 official languages. If you want to say hello, it's "sawubona" in Zulu, and "hallo" in Afrikaans. Now, South Africa's school children may start using "ni hao" to say hello.

南非有11種官方語言。如果你要打招呼，用祖魯語是"sawubona"，用南非荷蘭語是"hallo"。而現(xiàn)在，南非的學齡兒童開始用“你好”來打招呼。

The country's education minister says, the nation is adding the Mandarin language teaching in some schools. Mandarin is the official spoken language of China. That country is a major trading power for South Africa.

南非教育部長表示一些學校已經(jīng)開始教授普通話。普通話是中國的官方語言，而中國是南非的最重要的貿(mào)易國。

A recent agreement between the two nations centers on five areas of cooperation. They include development in basic education, school books and lessons, mathematics and science, teacher training and career education and research.

兩國最近簽署的一項協(xié)議涉及5個合作領域，分別是基礎教學發(fā)展、教科書與教程、數(shù)學與科學、師資培訓和教育生涯研究。

South Africa officials have not said how much they teaching Mandarin will cost. Troy Martens is an officials with South Africa's Ministry of Basic Education. She says the new partnership is extremely valuable.

南非官員并未對教授普通話會花費多少資金發(fā)表聲明。特洛伊·馬丁是南非基礎教育部的一名官員。她說這次新的伙伴關系極為珍貴。

"So it is very exciting and both countries have indicated that for them education is a high priority, and that is why education is high on the agenda of collaboration between the two countries," said Martens.

馬丁表示“因此這是非常令人振奮的，雙方國家都表示教育高于一切，這也是為什么教育在兩國合作中被提上日程的原因。”

The part of the plan that has garnered the most attention is the inclusion of the Mandarin language in schools.

而這項計劃最吸引人的一部分就是學校課程納入普通話。

A public opinion study last year found that South Africans have mixed feelings about China. The survey showed 46 percent of South Africans do not like the spread of Chinese ideas and customs in their country, the results also showed that 60 percent dislike Chinese music, movies and television.

南非公眾對中國的態(tài)度是喜憂參半。民意調(diào)查表明46%的南非人不喜歡中國的思想和習俗在自己國家傳播，還有60%的人不喜歡中國的音樂、電影和電視。

But Ms Martens said Chinese trade is more important than those feelings. She said it is extremely helpful to learners in South Africa to study Mandarin as well as Chinese culture. And she said not every school will offer Mandarin.

但是馬丁女士說相對他們的那些感受，更重要的是對中國的貿(mào)易。對學習者來說普通話和中國文化的學習極為重要，而且并不是每所學校都會提供普通話課程的!

"Now this will not be compulsory, it will not be for every school, and it will not be for every child. But for schools that feel they have the capacity to offer Mandarin as a subject, we think it is a great opportunity for South African learners to be exposed to this international type of language," said Martens.

馬丁還說“目前普通話教學并不屬于義務教學的范疇，并不是說每所學校，每個學生都要學習。 但是對于那些有能力提供普通話教學的學校，我們認為這是學生接觸這門國際語言的好機會。”

South Africa's population studies do not say how many native Chinese speakers are among its nearly 51 million people.

南非人口有大約51000000，但在這些人口中有多少中國人，南非人口調(diào)查并未透露。

Lisette Noonan heads the 80-year-old Pretoria Chinese School in South Africa's capital. The school serves about 500 students from kindergarten to grade 12. Every student studies Mandarin.

里希特.努南是南非80年歷史的比勒陀利亞中文學校的校長。這所學校有幼兒園到12年級的學生一共500名，每個學生都學習普通話。

Ms Noonan says the school welcomes the new cooperation between South Africa and China. She said it is in the best interests of children to study Mandarin. She said that especially true with China becoming what she called "a huge economic power in the world".

努南表示歡迎南非與中國的新合作。他說學習普通話孩子們最受益，尤其現(xiàn)在中國正在成為她所謂的“世界經(jīng)濟強國”。

South African schools suffer from the country's history of apartheid.

南非學校正在經(jīng)歷國家種族隔離的歷史的教訓。

And from VOA Learning English, that's the Education Report. I'm Bob Doughty.

這就是今天美國之音慢速英語，教育報道的全部內(nèi)容!我是鮑勃.道蒂。

（本文由chinavoa.com整理翻譯，請勿轉(zhuǎn)載）