Reading Goethe for fun
By Wang Xiang |
June 23, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
EVERY resident in northwestern China's Xi'an City should learn 900 English sentences, because that's what it takes to make Xi'an a world-class metropolis, according to the city government.
But the plan, revealed yesterday by locally based Chinese Business View, with a detailed timetable, was greeted with derision by online commentators.
The plan by the city's social science academy said half of the city's residents should be able to speak 900 English sentences and understand 500 traditional Chinese characters by 2015. By 2020, most Xi'an natives would be fluent in English and read Goethe and Pushkin in their leisure time thanks to a citywide education campaign.
But many commentators claimed Xi'an natives couldn't even speak Mandarin properly.
One government official, Yang Yibo, said there were some problems on the way to achieving world-class status, including, "too many lowly educated migrant workers from the countryside, too few immigrant talent from outside the country, and too lenient punishments for public littering and spitting."
But the plan, revealed yesterday by locally based Chinese Business View, with a detailed timetable, was greeted with derision by online commentators.
The plan by the city's social science academy said half of the city's residents should be able to speak 900 English sentences and understand 500 traditional Chinese characters by 2015. By 2020, most Xi'an natives would be fluent in English and read Goethe and Pushkin in their leisure time thanks to a citywide education campaign.
But many commentators claimed Xi'an natives couldn't even speak Mandarin properly.
One government official, Yang Yibo, said there were some problems on the way to achieving world-class status, including, "too many lowly educated migrant workers from the countryside, too few immigrant talent from outside the country, and too lenient punishments for public littering and spitting."
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