A WHITE statue of Chinese philosopher Confucius stands tall and behind it is the impressive building of the Confucius Institute — the rebranded Chinese language department at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML).

This institute, like several others around the globe, was set up to promote Chinese language and culture. It was founded with support from the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), and the Beijing Language and Culture University in April 2005.

The NUML’s Chinese language department, however, has been around for nearly half a century. When it was set up in September 1970, it had only 13 students. Over the years, however, the interest in the department has increased exponentially.

NUML’s Chinese language department had 13 students when it opened in 1970; this year it has 460 students

Rasheeda Mustafa, who has been teaching Mandarin at the NUML for the past 19 years, says thousands of students have learnt Mandarin [at the NUML] and joined different professions.

Perhaps, owing to the increasing demand, the Chinese government contributed to the expansion of the Chinese language department at the NUML back in 2015. “This centre will contribute to cementing Pakistan-China relations,” Zhang Daojian, a lecturer at the institute, told Dawn at that point.

Learning a new language

The institute has continued to attract a higher number of students since, Ms Mustafa says. Enrolment has nearly doubled in recent years. This year, 460 students have been admitted to the institute, 300 in the morning shift and 160 in the evening shift.

Activities at the Confucius Institute go beyond learning the Chinese language; it hosts a number of cultural events, including a Chinese lantern festival and ‘monkey year’. In 2010, the institute launched two Chinese-language radio stations that broadcast from Islamabad (FM 104.6) and Lahore (FM 95).

Mr Zhang says Pakistani students are sharp and learn Mandarin in a short time. “Mandarin is not a difficult language for those who want to learn it.”

He says, “The number of students is increasing with the passage of time because of job opportunities in Chinese companies… There were two sections of the certification [in the past], now there are 10.”

Ms Mustafa says that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a major factor behind this trend. She says that students can see the tides changing and expect that knowing Chinese would mean more job opportunities, in Pakistan as well as in China.

This is reflected in many students’ responses when asked about their interest in learning the language. Marya Kamran, a student from Rawalpindi, says that while she is interested in learning different languages, “choosing Mandarin is aimed at starting my own import and export business”.

Job market

Learning Chinese has certainly helped alumni acquire jobs in the past. Zeeshan Mehmood, a former student of the NUML, says that after finishing his Chinese language course in 2014, he got a job as a translator in a Chinese construction company working with Pakistan.

The institute clearly recognises this. A few years ago, it started offering a short-term course focused on ‘Business Chinese’ language.

The curriculum focuses not only on the language, but also basic etiquettes that students may need while doing business in China. The course has books like one titled “ABC Business Negotiation”.

But not all students have aspirations of doing business in China. Ms Mustafa says that students are also showing more interest in Chinese because after learning the language, they go to pursue Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in China.

Mahnoor Shermeen, one of the 149 women studying Mandarin at the NUML, hopes to go to China for higher studies. She says that after taking Chinese classes, students appear for a standardised Chinese proficiency test called HSK. The test is administered by the Confucius Institute headquarters in Beijing. The HSK consists of six levels and after passing four of them a student becomes eligible to apply for scholarships in China, Ms Shermeen says.

The increased interest in learning Chinese not only means that more students from across Pakistan are enlisting in the NUML, it has also resulted in Confucius institutes opening in different parts of the country. Right now there are four institutes; one each in Islamabad, Faisalabad (Agriculture University), Lahore (Punjab University) and Karachi (University of Karachi). The building of another institute is under construction in Gilgit.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017