Please register to access this content.
To continue viewing the content you love, please sign in or create a new account
Dismiss
This content is for our paying subscribers only

Gulf Saudi

Saudi Arabia to expand teaching Chinese language

Move follows Chinese president’s visit to kingdom aimed to boost ties with Arab world



Saudi school students will be offered more opportunities to learn the Chinese language soon.
Image Credit: SPA

Cairo: Saudi Arabia plans to expand teaching the Chinese language amid thriving links with Beijing and the Arab world.

Chinese President Xi Jinping Saturday left Saudi Arabia after an official visit to the kingdom where he met King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed.

Xi also attended summits with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council and other Arab leaders, pledging to deepen partnership between the Arab world and China.

Xi said in Riyadh that his country will offer thousands of opportunity to teach the Chinese language to the Gulf countries.

Undersecretary for Public Education at the Saudi Education Ministry, Ohud Al Fares, said that the Chinese language has already been introduced into some public and private schools as an optional subject.

Advertisement

“The Chinese language is one of the important world languages,” she told Saudi TV Al Ekhbariya.

“It is taught with the aim of enabling students to gain the necessary skills. Teaching the Chinese language will be expanded as part of optional curricula,” she added.

In 2020, Saudi education authorities started introducing the Chinese language in eight high schools as part of efforts to boost links between the two countries.

Earlier that year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman visited China where it was agreed to work out a plan for introducing the Chinese language into curricula of schools and universities in the kingdom.

Advertisement