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Chinese learning craze in Asia
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Spring Festival this year saw Chinese visitors become some of the most lavish spenders in the world. The influx of Chinese tourists and their zeal for consumption resulted in a surge of interest in the Chinese language in their destination countries.
This was especially true in neighboring ASEAN nations where a cultural link is already evident.
On a beach on Bali Island in southern Indonesia, Chinese tourists can be seen taking photos or picking up shells.
A vendor nearby is busy selling grilled corn. In order to make his business more robust, he learned quite a few Chinese phrases to cater to Chinese buyers. He's more than happy to show off his Chinese language skills.
The Chinese visitors say they are impressed by the frequency and fluency of spoken Chinese by the local salesman on the island.
The incoming Chinese visitors not only encourage Indonesians in the service sector to learn a few Chinese words, but government officials have also picked up on the trend. The governor of Bali Province, Made Mangku Pastika is a fan of the Chinese language. He said that by learning a bit of Mandarin, he wanted to project a sense of intimacy towards Chinese visitors to Bali.
Many tourist agencies and other related institutions in southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Laos have employ Chinese workers in order to better serve their incoming countrymen.
This Sri Lanka Airlines flight travels from Beijing to Bangkok. Each flight is equipped with a Chinese interpreter. Zhang Nan from Beijing says that every time she broadcasts greetings to the passengers, they learn from her and then reply using the same phrases.
