China's Xinjiang region promotes Mandarin to fight terrorism.Byline: ANI Beijing, June 5 (ANI): Teaching Mandarin Mandarin (măn`dərĭn) [Port. mandar=to govern, or from Malay mantri=counselor of state], a high official of imperial China. For each of the nine grades there was a different colored button worn on the dress cap. lessons in the Xinjiang Uygur Xin·jiang Uy·gur also Sin·kiang Ui·ghur or Sin·kiang Ui·gur An autonomous region of extreme western China. It came under Chinese control in the 16th century and was the site of a conflict between China and the Soviet Union in 1969. autonomous region is helping the people to fight terrorism, claimed Nur Bekri, chairman of the region. "Terrorists from neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. countries mainly target Uygurs that are relatively isolated from mainstream society as they cannot speak Mandarin. They are then tricked into terrorist activities," chinadaily.com.cn quoted Bekri as saying. Mandarin is now being taught in pre-school and kindergarten to equip children with a second language. Foreign media, however, has criticized the policy. "There had been demand for Mandarin language the spoken or colloquial language of educated people in China. See also: Mandarin lessons from ethnic minority students who wanted to be able to communicate with other Chinese," Bekri said, adding that students had not been forced to learn the language. The autonomous region has a population of just over 20 million, with 60 per cent being ethnic minority groups, mostly Uygur and Kazhak. Bekri said the second language policy was primarily planned to improve the standard of Mandarin among ethnic minority graduates to make them more competitive at the workplace. (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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