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More and more high schools choose Chinese as well as Japanese as second foreign languages, while fewer and fewer high schools choose other languages like German.
According to a survey of high schools across the country as to what languages they teach as second foreign languages, 1,715 schools or 55.2 percent of the total teach Japanese, continuing a small increase from 1,599 in 2003 and 1,397 in 2002. German, which was once the most popular foreign language, has lost its popularity to Chinese since last year.
The number of schools that adopt the Chinese language has continued to rise each year, with 351 in 2002, 523 in 2003, and 631 in 2004. On the other hand, schools that choose German have sharply decreased from 598 in 2002, to 491 in 2003, and 381 in 2004. An official from the Education Ministry said, ¡°As China emerges as a new world power, a growing number of schools adopt Chinese as the second foreign language. This trend is the same in all cities and provinces. Most schools want to teach Chinese or Japanese.¡±
In Seoul, given the fact that schools choose more than two languages as the second foreign language, out of a total of 289 schools, 251 schools accounting for 46.1 percent choose Japanese while 111 schools accounting for 20.4 percent, teach Chinese, 94 schools accounting for 17.2 percent German, and 75 schools accounting for 13.8 percent French.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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