Students attend a Chinese language class at Kheng Hock Chinese Language Center in Yangon, Myanmar, Aug. 14, 2022. (Photo by Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua)
YANGON, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The morning bell of Kheng Hock Keong located near downtown Yangon rings and as before greets people arriving to attend the Chinese language courses here.
The Kheng Hock Temple has been hosting a Chinese language school since more than 30 years ago, and recently the in-person classes resumed here after a long break over COVID-19.
"During over two years' closure of in-person classes, students kept studying Chinese at our school's online classes," an official from the Kheng Hock Chinese Language Center told Xinhua.
"We reopened in-person classes starting from this month. Our school has about 600 to 700 students now," U Sein Win, 73, head of the center, said when speaking to Xinhua reporters in a room of the temple.
"We are a charity school and accept people from all ethnic groups who want to study Chinese free of charge."
He talked about difficulties in operating a charity school, such as in funding and recruiting volunteer skilled teachers.
For Win Lae Yee Phyo, a 22-year-old attendee to classes at the center, learning Chinese language means possible jobs like being an interpreter and a teacher, "A door of opportunities to open," she said.
She told Xinhua that Chinese language skills have already helped her in her career.
"Chinese is my favorite foreign language. By studying Chinese, I've come to know more about the Chinese culture," said Win Lae, who started Chinese language studies over two years ago and is now having the courses at the middle and high school levels.
Khin Thet Thet Hlaing, 32, became a volunteer teacher at the center about 10 years ago.
From 2016 to 2018, she joined a training program for overseas teachers of Chinese language at the East China Normal University based in Shanghai after getting a scholarship.
Before working as a teacher, she had spent years studying Chinese at the Kheng Hock Chinese Language Center.
"I met many Chinese language teachers from various countries including the United States, Thailand and Laos, and got a broad knowledge of how to teach the Chinese language in the exchanges with them," she told Xinhua.
The teacher also believes that better understanding the Chinese culture through learning its language could help strengthen the friendship between her country and China. Both Myanmar and China treat other countries with respect, she added.
Kaung Pyae Sone Oo, a sixth grader from a government school, is now a participant of the grade 9 courses at the Kheng Hock Chinese Language Center.
"I began to learn speaking Chinese when I was five to six years old. I want to be an engineer, and I want to go to China," the 11-year-old child told Xinhua.
Cho Thet Khaing, 22, has a similar wish: "After learning Chinese, I want to go and study in China."
"We often hear things like previous students here earning higher salaries and getting a promotion, who became Chinese language teachers at private schools, or working as interpreters at Chinese companies," she said. ■
Students attend a Chinese language class at Kheng Hock Chinese Language Center in Yangon, Myanmar, Aug. 14, 2022. (Photo by Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua)
