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South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and religions. It has 11 official languages. If you want to say hello, it's "sawubona" in Zulu, and "hallo" in Afrikaans. Now, South Africa's school children may start using "ni hao" to say hello.
The country's education minister says, the nation is adding the Mandarin language teaching in some schools. Mandarin is the official spoken language of China. That country is a major trading power for South Africa.
A recent agreement between the two nations centers on five areas of cooperation. They include development in basic education, school books and lessons, mathematics and science, teacher training and career education and research.
South Africa officials have not said how much they teaching Mandarin will cost. Troy Martens is an officials with South Africa's Ministry of Basic Education. She says the new partnership is extremely valuable.
A public opinion study last year found that South Africans have mixed feelings about China. The survey showed 46 percent of South Africans do not like the spread of Chinese ideas and customs in their country, the results also showed that 60 percent dislike Chinese music, movies and television.
But Ms Martens said Chinese trade is more important than those feelings. She said it is extremely helpful to learners in South Africa to study Mandarin as well as Chinese culture. And she said not every school will offer Mandarin.
“Now this will not be compulsory, it will not be for every school, and it will not be for every child. But for schools that feel they have the capacity to offer Mandarin as a subject, we think it is a great opportunity for South African learners to be exposed to this international type of language,” said Martens.
Lisette Noonan heads the 80-year-old Pretoria Chinese School in South Africa's capital. The school serves about 500 students from kindergarten to grade 12. Every student studies Mandarin.
Ms Noonan says the school welcomes the new cooperation between South Africa and China. She said it is in the best interests of children to study Mandarin. She said that especially true with China becoming what she called “a huge economic power in the world”
