S and SE Asian languages learning becoming a craze in Yunnan

As China continues to improve its opening up to the outside world and strengthen its educational ties with neighboring countries, more and more higher-education institutions in the country offer South and Southeast Asian language courses. And Yunnan Minzu University is one of them.

By 2017, courses on the Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Myanmar languages have been offered in the university, according to Fang Zhen, Dean of the India-China Yoga College of the Yunnan Minzu University. And in March of 2017,the university began to offer majors in the Urdu, Nepali, Sinhala, Tamil and Pashto languages, with the permission from China’s Ministry of Education. It is now the first of its kind which offers 15 South and Southeast Asian language majors in Southwest China.

Languages are the bridges of communication between people from different countries. Although it is difficult for Chinese students to learn a foreign language, they said they are determined to learn by heart. They are also eager to take part in cultural exchanges between China and South and Southeast Asia. 

Editor: Wang Shixue