New lingo

In recent years this soft approach to language teaching has become widespread. Gone are the days of drilling long lists of vocabulary as teachers look to create a more immersive environment for learning.

An unprecedented number of resources are making this easier. In the UK, the BBC airs a TV program, with a supporting website, called The Lingo Show, aimed at giving pre-school children an introduction to foreign languages.

Earlier this year, the program ran a series focusing on Mandarin for the first time, where children were taught basic phrases by a roller-skating, crash-helmet wearing bug named Wei.

Adam Redfern, the series producer, says: "Lingo launched online with a total of nine languages, but when it came to the television show we knew we could only run series with three choices," Redfern says.

"So we went with Spanish and French based on the UK curriculum in primary schools, but also Mandarin because of the growing interest in China.

"I think it's fair to say with China such a fast growing business nation, it made a lot of sense to introduce the future generation to Mandarin alongside the more traditional French and Spanish."

The show has proved a hit among many children and parents alike. Feedback from parents has tended to stress how surprised they are to hear their child joining in with the show, repeating basic phrases like ni hao ("hello") or zai jian ("good-bye").

Alongside the language, the show aims to provide an introduction to Chinese culture. During production, experts were brought in to advise on content and ensure the program didn't rely on cheap stereotypes.

"Because Spain and France are European neighbors, kids are more likely to experience these cultures and languages first hand on holidays and trips," Redfern says. "Certainly China is more remote, so fewer viewers will visit in their early years.

"We wanted to expose them to China and show them a glimpse of the culture. To say to them, 'Look, there are kids of your age but they are eating their noodles with chopsticks'. It can only open their eyes and celebrate difference and diversity."

Government support

While programs such as The Lingo Show can provide an introduction to Chinese, European governments, sensing long-term economic benefits, are putting measures into place that aim to convert interest in Chinese into proficiency.

Last year Sweden became the first European nation to announce plans to offer Chinese to all schoolchildren across the country within the next decade.

"If we look toward the next generation, it's almost unavoidable to think anything else than that China will be a very important global actor," Sweden's education minister, Jan Bjorklund, told local media.

"Chinese will be much more important, from an economic perspective, than French or Spanish. Not everyone in the business world speaks English. Very qualified businesses are leaving Europe to move to China."

Sweden has a strong reputation as a language learner - particularly of English - with a large proportion of the country bilingual. However, some critics have argued that the country's language policy is too euro-centric, and Bjorklund's proposal is an attempt to rectify this.

Elsewhere in Europe there tends to be a north-south divide in terms of Mandarin uptake in schools, with the south of the continent, including countries such as Spain and Italy, slower to adopt Chinese as a major second language.

Germany, too, is struggling. Last year a report from the Padagogischer Austauschdienst, a public organization promoting international exchange in schools, claimed that fewer than 6,000 students across German schools were studying Chinese as part of the curriculum. This compares with an estimated 7.5 million German children studying English.

The UK has done better than most. The government estimates that one in six schools across the country offer some form of Chinese lessons. The language is now the fourth most taught in British schools after French, Spanish and German but at current rates will overtake them by the end of the decade.