Young Laotians Learn Chinese to Improve Job Prospects
By CALVIN YANG

VIENTIANE, Laos — On alternate mornings, in a sparsely furnished classroom at a private school in the Laotian capital, Liphakone Ratthida and a dozen of his classmates converse in Chinese and study China’s history and culture.

Though he goes by the Chinese name Li Panda, Mr. Ratthida is not of Chinese ancestry, nor has he been to China.

His experience of China is limited to Chinese period dramas on Laotian television and stories from cousins who have studied there. “What I know about China is that it has many luxurious buildings,” he said. “And in China, the universities are better, and the jobs pay better.”

Like many other young Laotians taking Chinese classes, Mr. Ratthida, 19, is learning the language in the hope of working for Chinese companies, which are investing heavily in Laos, an underdeveloped country of 6.5 million people. The recent influx of Chinese companies has brought jobs and the promise of higher salaries.

“In future, there will be a lot of Chinese companies coming to Laos,” said Mr. Ratthida, who is studying international economics and trade at Soochow University in Laos, which is mainland China’s first university campus abroad. “It is easier to find work at a Chinese company if I can speak the language.”

Many Chinese schools have sprung up in towns along the Laos-China border, while Chinese schools in Vientiane are gaining popularity and Laotian schools are starting to offer Chinese classes. Laotian government officials are among the parents choosing to put their children in such schools.

“We have many government officials who send their kids to our school,” said Lin Junxiong, director and principal of the Lieu Tou Chinese School, which opened in 1937 and is Vientiane’s oldest Chinese school. “It is a common sight to see police cars waiting outside the school gate. These parents want their children to study Chinese because the Chinese economy is booming and it is an advantage if they know the language.”

Lieu Tou has seen a spike in enrollment over the past few years. It now has about 2,400 students from kindergarten through high school, a 10 percent increase from a year ago.

“In the past, we have 30 students in a class — now we have 40 to 50 students per class,” Mr. Lin said. “Many good students cannot enroll into this school because we have limited classrooms and teachers.”

The school has 160 teachers, 29 of them from China on two-year stints paid for by the Chinese government. Students learn Lao and Chinese from kindergarten, with English introduced in primary school. Although 10 percent of the students are of Chinese ancestry — Laos has an ethnic Chinese population estimated at 1 to 2 percent — most speak no Chinese when they start, Mr. Lin said.

Xaynousone Oudomsap, an 18-year-old high school student at Lieu Tou, has been learning Chinese for 13 years and has two younger sisters in the same school.

“At first, it was difficult learning Chinese because of the complex characters and the different tones,” she said. “Nowadays, there are more international companies in Laos, and it would be easier to find a job if you know more than one language.”

China’s economic influence can be felt throughout Laos, a landlocked country. Chinese companies are building factories and constructing dams on the Mekong River and will soon begin an ambitious high-speed rail project to link Vientiane with Kunming, the capital of the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.

Special economic zones have also emerged along the border to encourage Chinese businesses to invest. Near Wattay International Airport, hundreds of Chinese vendors ply their wares at the San Jiang International Market, which is owned by Chinese and known as the Chinese Market.

“It is like stepping into China,” said Nina Phanouvong, an 18-year-old student at Lieu Tou. “They sell everything Chinese, such as food, clothes and furniture. They even have fake iPhones.”

Soochow University, which opened its Vientiane branch last year, is also trying to find a market for its degrees in Laos at a time when top Western universities are looking to enter China. Another mainland Chinese university, Xiamen University, is planning a campus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“Only by going out can we close in on the top Chinese universities, and we think Laos is a suitable location to begin,” said Wang Jiexian, vice president of Soochow’s Vientiane campus.

Soochow is the first foreign university to receive approval from the Laotian government to provide degree programs. The campus offers courses in Laotian law, Chinese literature, economics and trade, as well as Chinese.

“By the time they graduate, all our students will be able to speak Chinese,” Mr. Wang said. “They can speak at least two languages, understand the cultures of the two countries and work well in a Chinese company here.”

The campus now operates from temporary premises in suburban Vientiane, pending development of a 57-acre permanent site on former village land on the fringes of the city. The permanent campus has been designed to house 5,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, but its completion date is uncertain because of a land dispute.

This year, Soochow has 50 students enrolled in undergraduate programs and 100 registered in evening classes. Undergraduates will spend a year attending classes in Laos before continuing three years of their education on the main campus, which is in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou and has a student population of over 41,000.

The fees are not low by local standards. A year at the Laotian campus costs as much as $1,500, five times the $300 average at local universities. Fees at the Suzhou campus can cost $2,500 a year, though once the new campus is built, students will be able to complete their entire degree program in Laos.

The university originally planned for the campus to be built in three years, with a $7 million first phase — a cafeteria, a dormitory and a building for classrooms and offices — completed by the end of last year. But for now, all that stands on the site are houses occupied by three village families who have resisted eviction orders.

“We’ve yet to begin construction because the villagers do not want to move,” Mr. Wang said. “When we try to start, they stop us.”

The Laotian government has put together a team to settle the dispute, he said, but “it is now impossible to complete construction in two to three years. We may have to wait.”

寮國生瘋中文 就為擠進陸企

紐約時報報導，由於越來越多中國大陸公司到寮國投資，為了讓子女能夠在待遇較高的大陸企業工作，許多寮國父母把子女送到中國學校讀書。從寮國首都永珍到中、寮兩國邊界的各個城鎮，中國學校如雨後春筍般出現，大陸的蘇州大學也在永珍成立分校提供學士課程，連寮國學校也開始教中文。

早在一九三七年就成立的寮都中國學校，是永珍最早的中國學校。主任兼校長林忠雄表示，「許多政府官員把孩子送來我們學校。經常有警車在校門外等候。這些父母希望子女研讀中文，因為中國經濟繁榮，而懂中文將是一大優勢。」

近幾年寮國中國學校的註冊人數激增；從幼稚園到中學共有約二千四百名學生，比一年前增加一成。林忠雄表示，「過去一班約卅人，現在增加到四、五十人一班，還有許多優秀學生擠不進來。」該校有一百六十位老師，其中廿九人來自中國大陸，兩年一調，由大陸政府出錢。學生從幼稚園起便學寮文及中文，小學時又學英文。

在高度閉鎖的寮國，大陸經濟的影響力無所不在。大陸公司在寮國廣設工廠，在湄公河建水壩，不久即將興建高速鐵路連接永珍和昆明。

兩國邊界區也陸續設立經濟特區，鼓勵大陸企業前來寮國投資。永珍瓦岱國際機場附近的三江國際商場內，有幾百處大陸攤商出售各種商品。十八歲的學生法洛風說，「彷彿走入中國，賣的都是中國貨，他們甚至有山寨版iPhone。」

去年在永珍成立的蘇州大學分校，也積極在寮國招生。該校是第一所獲寮國政府批准、能授予學位的外國大學；課程包括寮國法律、中國文學及中文。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/world/asia/young-laotians-learn-chinese-to-improve-job-prospects.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.tmagazine.com/education/20140217/t17laos/zh-hant/

2014-02-11．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯任中原