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Kenya Will Start Teaching Chinese To Elementary School Students From 2020 (qz.com)
Kenya will teach Mandarin in classrooms in a bid to improve job competitiveness and facilitate better trade and connection with China. From a report: The country's curriculum development institute (KICD) has said the design and scope of the mandarin syllabus have been completed and will be rolled out in 2020. Primary school pupils from grade four (aged 10) and onwards will be able to take the course, the head of the agency Julius Jwan told Xinhua news agency. Jwan said the language is being introduced given Mandarin's growing global rise, and the deepening political and economic connections between Kenya and China.
"The place of China in the world economy has also grown to be so strong that Kenya stands to benefit if its citizens can understand Mandarin," Jwan noted. Kenya follows in the footsteps of South Africa which began teaching the language in schools in 2014 and Uganda which is planning mandatory Mandarin lessons for high school students.
"The place of China in the world economy has also grown to be so strong that Kenya stands to benefit if its citizens can understand Mandarin," Jwan noted. Kenya follows in the footsteps of South Africa which began teaching the language in schools in 2014 and Uganda which is planning mandatory Mandarin lessons for high school students.
More countries will switch as China replaces US as biggest economic power. No surprise it's happening in Kenya as Africa is heavily invested in by China.
This. I've heard of it happening in other countries recently too.
Countries see what's up. The US is declining as world power, and China is the big rising star. It'll be the biggest economy, the most powerful nation, and it's splashing money around like mad to buy influence. It's locking up long term resources.
Long run, China replaces the US as top dog. People want to be on good terms with the new big dog in the yard.
That might be okay except they treat minorities much worse than USA does and has a shitty human rights record. (And USA is nothing to aspire! but China is far worse yet).
It is bound to be a lot more useful to those kids in a global commerce environment than Swahili.
China is doing this because they own significant parts of Kenya along with their debt. Kenya is behind on payments too, bet you really haven't heard much on that.
Om, nomnomnom...
The US and EU have sucked in our dealing with Africa, mostly realizing that the area is too hospitable to colonize, they just left it alone. Not realizing there is a population of workers being under under utilized, and can be supported to be stronger economies, which in turn create more customers.
I don't think it's that. Trying to get involved in Africa as a western company just gets a mountain of whinging twats complaining about colonialism on Twitter or other social media.
China doesn't give two fucks. They're rounding up religious minorities and sending them to reeducation camps. They won't care about international criticism from those former groups on Twitter either.
It's always a good idea to learn the language of the master class that bought your country.
In the short-lived series, Firefly, Mandarin Chinese was a common second language. So... a good prediction, or life imitating art?
And you americans worry about a few thousand spanish speaking illegals entering your country from the southern border... Your turn will come soon enough.
And what about all those whiny canadian anglos bitching because the big bad federal governement forces them to learn french in school. Try to avoid hearing mandarin or cantoneese anywhere in Vancouver these days. You too will be forced to jump on the chineese band wagon.
China doesn't need nuclear weapons. All it needs is to move five hundred million chinese along the border of the country they want to invade, and have them yell "BANG !" all together.
That remains to be seen. GDP per capita basically measures how much productivity each citizen generates on average. The amount of inefficiency in a country's economy (due to corruption, lack of economic liquidity, and poor government policies) shows up as a lower GDP per capita.
The U.S. has a GDP per capita of nearly $60,000. Most EU nations are between $40k-$60k. Japan is around $40k. Ireland is around $70k due to its tax policies causing most foreign businesses to set up EU HQ there. Norway's is around $75k due to its oil exports. And Switzerland and Luxembourg are higher yet due to their heavy presence in banking. Likewise, the city-states (Macau, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc) are skewed high due to not having any low-income farmers in their stats.
Corruption or poor government policies limit the country's GDP per capita. South Korea and Taiwan's GDP per capita have stalled at around $25k-$30k for this reason. Despite both countries being capitalistic power houses, corruption and nepotism infest business practices there, and there's still a heavy stigma against women working (you cripple your productivity per capita when you discourage half of your able-bodied population from working).
Countries without a solid capitalistic base and with high corruption or poor government policies are usually mired at a GDP per capita of around $10k. Eastern Europe and much of Central and South America.
China is currently at $8k. If its Communist government and inherent corruption (you need to bribe people and officials to get any business done there) limits its GDP per capita to $10k, then the growth of its total GDP will stall at around $15 trillion. The U.S. and EU GDPs are already at $19 trillion each. So China would not surpass them in global economic influence. Even if China manages Taiwan-like levels of productivity (unlikely IMHO as long as its government remains Communist and insists on wasting capital on things like building empty cities), its total GDP would max out at around $35 trillion, giving it less economic influence than the U.S. and EU combined despite having twice the population.
China's heavy investment abroad has been fueled by its rapidly growing economy, which left it plenty of excess money to spend abroad. The signs are that growth is now slowing. (Sorry the bottom of the graph is 6%, not 0%. Every graphic I could find online did that.)
At a 6.5% growth rate, it will take 4 years for China's GDP per capita to hit $10k, 10 years to hit $15k, and 20 years to hit $20k. So we will know in the next 10-15 years whether the Chinese economy will continue growing, or if it will stall.