Chinese media has come out with a report saying that more than 40 million foreigners around the world are learning Chinese. The reports quote a senior official with the Confucius Institute Headquarters.

We decided to see how fast Chinese language learning is growing in the United States. We checked with a company called Rosetta Stone, which offers computer language learning services in 24 languages, including Chinese.

A spokesperson told us Chinese is among the top 10 languages sold with a huge increase over a one year period from 2008 to 2009 in corporate sales, an increase of 719 percent.

We also spoke with Chris Livaccari, Associate Director of Education and Chinese language initiatives for the New York based Asia Society.

Ira Mellman: Chris, why such a rapid growth in people wanting to learn Chinese?

Chris Livaccari: "I think in some ways there is an analogy with what happened with Japanese in the 1980s. And I've also been a Japanese language teacher, so I've sort of seen this from both perspectives. I think in the United States if you look at the headlines over the last several years, it's clear that there is a perception among Americans that China is the place, in many ways, that is going to define our future."

"And that the relationship between the United States and China is perhaps the most important bilateral relationship in the world right now. And so I think that realization, or that perception among Americans, has really fueled the growth of Chinese language programs, again, much as we saw the growth of Japanese language programs in the 1980s and 1990s."

Ira Mellman: "Is Chinese a difficult language for an English speaker to learn?"

Chris Livaccari: "It is in some ways and in some ways not so difficult. So the biggest challenge for American learners of Chinese is definitely the writing system. And the Chinese writing system is actually difficult even for Chinese people. As you know, it is a character-based language and it is completely different really from every other language that is in use in the world today for that reason. If you look at the scripts used in every other language used on on earth right now, for the most part they all come from a common ancestor."

"An alphabetic or syllabic system probably developed in Mesopotamia several thousand years ago. But Chinese is really unique. it takes an incredible investment of time and energy for students to know enough Chinese characters to be literate. So, it's a great challenge, but it comes with great opportunities. Because learning Chinese characters also use parts of your brain and develop other academic skills that other languages simply don't touch on. So I think it is a difficult language, that's obvious. But I think there is a real benefit to investing in the study of Chinese."

Ira Mellman: "And what is that?"

Chris Livaccari: "I think there are a number of things, but I would say one is many peole have commented on the spectacular success of China in the education realm, especially if you look at math and science and particularly if you look at the recent results of the PISA exams that were released last Wednesday. The spectacular success in science and math in particular among Chinese-speaking nations has been observed as potentially something that is contributed to by the fact that Chinese students are trained from a very early age at things like pattern recognition and memorization through their learning of Chinese characters. So I think there is a link in terms of students' cognitive skills development that is trained by learning Chinese characters."

"The other thing that is very important I think about learning Chinese and Chinese characters for American students, in terms of the benefit, is that because Chinese is such a different language, structurally, from English, it really enables students to see things from a completely different perspective. And helps them understand the idea of multiple perspectives and multiple viewpoints. So that, I think, for most American students is the most important benefit to learn a challenging language that can build their confidence and learn a language that is quite different that can open their eyes to how language works and how multiple perspectives work."

Ira Mellman: "Do you think that Chinese learning is the fastest growing language learning in the world?"

Chris Livaccari: "I don't have clear evidence in terms of which is the fastest growing language in the world. But I certainly wouldn't be surprised. In addition to the Rosetta Stone numbers that you mentioned, I believe the American Council of the Teaching Foreign Languages has just released a report that suggests also Chinese as the fastest growing language, with a growth rate of 195%. And so I think that's just talking about the United States. But I think it is clear that it is, if not, you know, worldwide, in every country, the fastest growing language, I think overall it probably is the fastest growing language currently."

Mesopotamia: an ancient region of southwestern Asia in present-day Iraq, lying between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; it's alluvial plains were the site of the civilizations of Akkad, Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria 美索不达米亚

Related stories:

英大学生“毕业即失业”创纪录 懂汉语者起薪最高

美国汉语热遭遇“教师荒”

全球汉语热 对外汉语教师需求增大

China's rapid rise spurs Americans to learn Chinese

（来源：VOA 编辑：崔旭燕）