Job opportunities

Jain feels the Confucius Institute's language programs are key to giving American kids a competitive future. "When American kids learn languages like Mandarin and understand more about foreign cultures, it opens up all kinds of well-paid job opportunities for them and makes them better equipped to compete with applicants from other countries."

Speaking Chinese fluently during a Confucius Institute event in late September, first year Stanford University student Charlie Hoffs said her romance with Chinese started from the love of Chinese characters.

"Then I increasingly realized the language's importance for the economy and tourism," she said. "Chinese is a vital skill."

For Lytone Chibona, a Confucius Institute student in University of Zambia, learning Chinese is simply practical. "Very few of them take up practical skills such as learning the Chinese language ... which they can use while looking for a job. That skill can later turn out to be your main job in the long run," said the 22-year-old.

In October, local branches from 14 Chinese enterprises visited a job fair held by the University of Zambia's Confucius Institute. "Our business is growing with the participation of hundreds of Zambians, so we come here to recruit more skilled young workers," said Linda Yan, a human resources manager with the Chinese aviation company AVIC International.

Expanding cooperation in countries under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) leads to increased Chinese investments and local jobs. Learning Chinese has thus become a trend in Belarus, for example.

High school student Anastasiya Solonets said she has been studying Chinese for four years and will continue part-time at the Confucian Institute when in college. "I hope to get a good job in the (China-Belarus) industrial park."

Likewise in Tajikistan, the craze to learn Chinese in recent years has prompted some 3,000 people a year to pursue further study in China, making China the second largest host country of its overseas students.