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Children as young as four will learn to speak Mandarin thanks to a BBC series that starts today. An animated bug called Wei, who wears rollerskates and a crash helmet, will teach young viewers basic vocabulary such as the words for 'hello', 'thank you', the names of colours and numbers up to 10. It has been suggested that the decision to include Mandarin alongside the two other 'priority' languages - French and Spanish - was driven by calls for children to be prepared for a global economy dominated by China. The Chinese language has more native speakers than any other.And now Mandarin, the umbrella term for dialects spoken in the north and south-west of the country, is well on its way to becoming the language of commerce. With the nation's economy fast catching up on that of the U.S., traditional centres of industry in the West are now looking at a future in which the ability to speak Mandarin could be a crucial. 增派1000名汉语教师 英国广播公司BBC将在电视上播出汉语教学动画片节目，教授4到6岁的孩子学习汉语。在节目中，一个名叫“伟”的小蜜蜂动画形象将通过唱歌和游戏来教授孩子们简单的汉语单词和数学，包括从1数到10的计数，“你好”“谢谢”“猫狗”“船”和各种色彩之类。近年来英国一直在热议将汉语当作必修的语言之一，由于汉语教学项目的受欢迎度稳步增长（increase steadily），卡梅伦也曾表示将增派1000名汉语教师到学校中去。利兹大学中文学讲师威特曼博士表示，汉语学习对孩子来说不是那么困难的事情，“汉语是讲究音律的，非常容易被模仿，也很适合用童谣（nursery rhyme）、唱歌来学习，虽然有人诟病中国教育是死记硬背（to learn by rote ; cram for），但是对孩子来说，加强重复还是很有效果的。” | 
