False Eastern promise

摘要

"China will be the dominant power in the 21st century and the employment opportunities that speaking Mandarin will give are immense." Thus Anthony Seldon, headmaster of Wellington College, at a conference in 2006 entitled "Why every school should offer Mandarin". Nearly two years later, the spectacular growth of the language in British schools shows no sign of slowing. More than 400 secondary schools now teach it, according to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, which is lobbying to bring Mandarin into the national curriculum.