A new wave of Chinese migration is afoot, fuelled by ever-younger students for whom English is not a piece of knowledge to be learnt but a living language able to unlock the intricacies of the wider world.
Shen Jiahui and Wang Taojun learnt English at school and speak it perfectly without having ever set foot outside China. So well did they learn the language, they ranked second and fourth among 10,000 entrants in a national English public speaking competition run by the English language newspaper China Daily.
"Interest is the best teacher and also the first teacher," Mr Wang said. "For me, the second teacher would be the ambition to know the world outside of China."
"From that day on we tried to communicate with him and he tried to understand Chinese students and become more patient.
“從那天起,我們嘗試和他溝通,他也試著去理解中國學(xué)生,變得更有耐心?!?/div>
"We can overcome cultural clashes and pursue cultural co-existence, which is very important in the 21st century, because we are co-operating with each other in a global world."
This year 200,000 Chinese students chose not to sit the traditional university pathway, the national college entrance exam, setting their goals instead above and beyond a domestic university place.
A deputy editor with China Daily, Shen Gang, said the competition grew from Beijing's failure to win the battle with Sydney to host the 2000 Olympics, in part because so few citizens could speak English.
Mr Shen said English had no rival as the external language for Chinese students.
申鋼稱,作為中國學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)的一門外語,英語可謂是無可匹敵。
It is now compulsory for students from their third year of primary school and is the language of joint ventures for companies such as Nokia, Siemens and Volkswagen.
Learning it is one thing, speaking it has been another, with Chinese students typically learning "mute English", Mr Shen said. Now they are speaking up and it is vital they continue to do so, he said.
"Public speaking is a fundamental base for democracy. If you don't speak publicly, ideas won't be exchanged and people won't know what others are thinking about," Mr Shen said.