Chinese children are taking lessons in a third language from as young as 5 years old. Photo: IC

 

Sun Hao had always been jealous of her multilingual colleagues. Although Sun speaks both Chinese and English, it seemed to her that co-workers who could speak a third or even a fourth language were afforded opportunities for which she was overlooked. So in 2012, when her daughter Tingyue turned 10, Sun decided to enroll her into a Spanish class at Lexuezhe Academy - an institution that offers private foreign languages tuition.

Each week, Tingyue takes a two-hour one-to-one class, costing 300 yuan ($48) per lesson.

"I think Spanish is easier to learn than French and German," Sun said. "Spanish also has the advantage of being widely spoken in both North and South America. I believe that learning Spanish will benefit her in her future life."

Sun is not the only one. With the massive uptake of English language learning in China over the past decades, more and more parents are starting to think that being bilingual is not enough. Seeking to give their kids that exclusive leg up, increasing numbers of parents are encouraging their children to learn a third and even fourth language.

According to Sun, Tingyue has been learning English from the time she entered primary school. Tingyue has already sat the Graded Examinations in Spoken English (GESE), a proficiency test for speakers of other languages run by Trinity College London. She passed with the highest possible grade.

"I didn't want her studying a third language until she was a little older, because I was worried that it might confuse her if she had to pick up a third language at such a young age," said Sun.

"So I wanted to wait until she had built a strong foundation in English first."

Vicarious parents

For two years, Qiao Yiling had been trying to find a suitable institution for her 8 year-old-daughter to start learning a third language.

Initially, Qiao wanted her daughter to learn French, but places for enrolment are limited, and competition is fierce.

"I contacted the Alliance Française in Beijing, but I was told that there was a waiting-list," said Qiao. "Their French language classes for children are all full."

Qiao then tried to enroll her daughter into Spanish classes at the Instituto Cervantes in Beijing, but again failed to secure a place.

Finally, Qiao managed to get her daughter into a Spanish class at Lexuezhe Academy, which is situated near her building-compound in Wangjing, Chaoyang district.

Her daughter had already been taking English classes since she was three years old.

"My husband and I weren't lucky enough to be exposed to Western culture when we were growing up. I think that learning a third language will give our daughter a greater opportunity to go abroad, and to more easily adjust to another country's culture," said Qiao.

Qiao dismisses questions about the potentially prohibitive cost of sending her daughter to language classes each week.

"Even if it costs quite a bit of money, where there's a will, there's a way. When we first enrolled her into English classes, we didn't have much money. But we paid for the classes anyway, because we think it will benefit her in the future," said Qiao.

Some parents have a very specific vision of why they want their child to acquire a third language. One parent, Li Zhen (pseudonym), enrolled her 17-year-old son Spenser into French classes at Harrow International School Beijing three years ago because she had envisioned that Spenser would do his post-graduate studies in Europe. 

"Spenser plans to attend university in the US, and then continue on with further studies in Europe, so it's important that he picks up another language now," said Li.

"Looking further, I think mastering a third language will help him to gain an advantage in working with international companies."

Parents' zeal for their children to learn a third language has resulted in a boom of language training centers in Beijing. Photos: IC

 

A thriving business

Dozens of language institutions have sprouted up to meet the growing demand of middle and upper-class parents who are keen for their children to learn a third or fourth language.

At present, various institutions in Beijing offer classes in Korean, Japanese, German, Spanish and French. Spanish classes at Instituto Cervantes cost 1,400 yuan for a 30-hour course, while French classes at the Alliance Française are 1,600 yuan for a 50-hour course.

Privately-run language institutions charge considerably more. A 50-hour group course in French or Spanish at Lexuezhe Academy costs 3,750 yuan.

Chen Donghui, the principal at Lexuezhe, said that they started offering classes in other languages in 2012 due to persistent requests from parents. The venture has been so successful that they now provide language tuition in five languages. The most popular courses are Japanese, French and Spanish.

"Most of our students are children above 5 years old. They usually come from families with parents who frequently go abroad, or who otherwise deal with foreigners in their day-to-day business," said Chen.

Despite business flourishing, Chen has come up against a stumbling block in further growing the academy. He said the biggest obstacle to properly capitalizing on the potentially lucrative market was the lack of teachers. Though there is no shortage of foreigners from non-English-speaking countries residing in Beijing, most of them have no teaching experience.

"We have to train our own teachers, as well as import the learning materials," said Chen.

For this reason, Chen said, demand continues to outstrip supply. Parents who would otherwise be willing to pay for lessons are sometimes left out in the cold.

Some parents have tried to find a creative solution around the problem.

Eduwings Kindergarten is a German and English language school originally built to cater only to the children of ex-pats. But Penny Zhang, an admissions officer at the kindergarten, said that they currently have five Chinese students enrolled in their German department.

"We don't encourage parents to send their non-German children to our school, unless they're planning on sending their children to German-speaking countries later," said Zhang. "But some parents insist. They just want their kids to learn a language other than English."

A number of high schools have also started offering classes in languages other than English to meet the growing demand. Beijing No. 109 High School gives students the option of taking Spanish. In addition, Li mentioned that prior to enrolling her son Spenser into an international school, many of his friends were already taking classes in a third language at their public schools.     

Living the language

Although their children are taking classes in a third language, both Sun and Qiao expressed concerns that their children would not be able to adequately practice speaking the language while still in Beijing.

"Unlike with English, it's difficult to find opportunities for my daughter to practice her third language. Unfortunately, neither my husband nor I speak Spanish. So her improvement is quite slow," said Qiao.

To give his child a better environment for learning Japanese, Liu Songhao, a professor at Peking University, took his 4-year-old son with him when he was invited to take up a two-year-teaching post in Japan in 2013.

"Children are very receptive, and are good at imitating what is around them," said Liu. "It's important to make the most of this period. The key to learning a foreign language is to make it part of your life."

Wang Lihua, an expert in preschool education, agreed with Liu's comments.

"Learning a language doesn't just depend on in-class teaching. To really study a language well, it's important that the child has the right environment, where it forms part of their everyday life," said Wang. "It's important for parents to cultivate a good learning environment for their children, not simply thrust them into a language learning class." 

Rather than immediately enrolling their children into language learning classes, Wang suggested that parents should expose their children to other languages through songs, television shows and films.

Wang concedes however, that at a certain point, language classes are unavoidable.

"For students who want to live abroad, it's necessary to learn the language in advance," said Wang.

Marina Yang contributed to this story