From the Chinese Press

Chinese Dream calls for hard work

To realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, the country must foster the Chinese spirit and unite the people, but the realization of the dream must not be isolated from reality. China should stick to the strategic thinking that development is of overriding importance, and consolidate the material and cultural foundations for the realization of the Chinese Dream, says an article in People's Daily. Excerpts:

Only when dreams are rooted in reality can they become truly great. Tianjin Youth, a Chinese language magazine, has raised three points about the London 1908 Olympic Games. China sent an athlete to the 1908 Olympics. It also sent a sport delegation to the Games. And it was the first time China bid to host the international sports gala.

Since China was weak and poor at that time and for many of the following decades, it took 100 years for it to realize its dream of staging the Olympic Games. China achieved the goal of staging the Games through continuous development.

It is the country's continuous development that has made the realization of the ultimate Chinese Dream a possibility now. The success of Chinese people in their fight against foreign aggression, their sacrifice in the founding of New China, the introduction of reform and opening-up, the country's entry into the World Trade Organization and successful hosting of the Olympic Games and the Shanghai 2010 World Expo signify the hard-won progress of the Chinese nation and its march toward national rejuvenation.

The path to realizing the dream, however, will not be smooth. Even though China is the world's second largest economy, its per capita GDP remains relatively low, and the deteriorating environment and depleting resources threaten to undermine the growth momentum of the Chinese economy. Added to these is a surfeit of problems that social transformation has given rise to.

There is, therefore, all the more need for China to adhere to the long-held central task of economic development while transforming its economic growth pattern by upgrading its industrial structure. The government should facilitate the country's development in an all-round way, from politics and culture to civil society, under the guiding ideology of Scientific Outlook on Development.

Only through comprehensive development can China consolidate the material and cultural foundations for national rejuvenation.

Treat it just like another subject

A member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the Information Intelligence Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently said that Chinese students are forced to devote more time to studying English and thus neglect other subjects, which is detrimental to the Chinese education system and the Chinese language. The remark is not only biased, but also sensational, says an article on rednet.cn. Excerpts:

Neither does English enjoy supreme status in education, as the CPPCC member has claimed, nor is it more important than any of the subjects that students have to study in schools. The problem is that educators have not made it clear to students why English should be a part of the school syllabus and why they should study it.

The real purpose of teaching English to school students is to help them communicate with the outside world and capitalize on the vast ocean of advanced information available in English. But statistics show that many college students, after spending vast amounts of their time and energy learning English, have ended up with jobs that do not require the use of the language.

Since English is only a tool for communication, students should spend more time on learning or honing professional skills rather than mastering the language if it only helps them clear the exams. In this sense, learning English is a waste of time and energy for most students.

To truly integrate into the international community, we not only need passion and courage, but also a clear idea about how and why English should be taught in schools. Chinese people should not be biased against the teaching of English. Instead, they should reflect on how English as a language should be taught without compromising the importance of other subjects.

(China Daily 03/26/2013 page9)