adminNAIROBI. – Maureen Achieng took up Chinese language studies during her undergraduate education so that she could get a chance to go to China.
However, as jobs became hard to come by and her interest in the Chinese language grew, she took the studies of the Chinese language more seriously and today she teaches the language at the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi.
During Achieng’s days as a student, the Chinese language had not been officially adopted into the Kenyan education curriculum and she was lucky to learn the language at the Confucius Institute.
In 2019, the Kenyan government introduced the Chinese language as an optional subject for young learners along with other foreign languages such as French, German and Arabic while implementing its competency-based curriculum. Achieng sees this as a windfall because from her experience, learning a new language as an adult was not easy.
“As an adult, I did not have sufficient time to learn the language due to other responsibilities. I also struggled with the pronunciation of some words and writing Chinese characters,” she said.
“Giving young students the opportunity to learn an additional language is better because they have more time and their brains can handle a new language while their speech apparatus can easily adapt to a new way of speaking. It also gives them exposure to the culture early enough,” Achieng added.
Faith Nyamboki, the curriculum development officer for Mandarin Chinese at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, said that since its introduction in 2019, they have developed, approved and validated Mandarin Chinese curriculum designs for upper primary school and junior secondary school as well as for teacher training colleges. Meanwhile, the development, approval and validation of curriculum designs for the other levels are ongoing.
“The ministry of education introduced the Chinese language into the Kenyan curriculum because learning foreign languages is a prerequisite for global citizenship and promotes international consciousness by fostering a positive attitude toward other nations,” Nyamboki said.
As a Chinese language lecturer, Achieng sees numerous benefits for Kenyan students who opt to study Chinese as a foreign language. These include employment opportunities as teachers, translators, interpreters, tour guides, among others. They also stand a chance to earn scholarship opportunities for further studies in China and later land business opportunities in both Kenya and China.
“As a country, we have learned that working with Chinese people is easier since they have given us loans with minimal conditions and friendly interest compared to other countries we have previously worked with,” Achieng said. – ChinaDaily.com
Online Reporter