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The People's Education Press (PEP) and Kunming Awakening Group (KAG) signed a letter of intent for the export of PEP products at the Nineteenth Beijing International Book Fair on August 30, 2012. This means all the PEP publications, including the textbooks of primary and secondary school, will be agented and sold by the stores of KAG in Southeast Asia and South Asia.
What’s the sales status of PEP products, especially the PEP textbooks, in the host countries 100 days later? What are the needs of the host countries to the PEP products? What should be done to improve the export of the PEP products? From 11th to 19th, December, Yin Zhongmin, president of the PEP, led the publishers and editors of the PEP Textbooks Center, International Marketing Department, Marketing and Training Department, Electronic Audio and Video Publishing House to conduct field researches to the Phnom Penh Chinese Bookstore (Cambodia) and the Vientiane Chinese Bookstore (Laos) of KAG, and the Oversea Chinese Public Secondary School of Laos.
The 1st Stop
Phnom Penh Chinese bookstore of KAG in Cambodia:
Chinese Education Seminar in Cambodia and PEP high-quality Textbook Promotion Event
The Chinese Education Seminar in Cambodia and PEP high-quality Textbook Promotion Event held at Phnom Penh Chinese bookstore of KAG, No. 83 Kim Il-Sung Avenue, Tuol Kork District, Phnom Penh Municipal, at 14:00 December 12 (local time). PEP publishers, together with graduate representatives from the Confucius Institute, DHY Royal University of Phnom Penh, Liqun Chinese School of Phnom Penh, Yuk Sau International School and Chinese School in Cambodia held lively conversations on the use and demand of the Chinese education and Chinese textbooks.
There are three major concerns proposed by the participants of Cambodia: firstly, lack of Chinese textbooks suitable for Chinese education in Cambodia; secondly, urgent need for targeted Chinese video teaching materials; thirdly, urgent training of Chinese language teachers.
Chinese Education Being Restricted by the Lack of Textbooks and Teachers
Xie Jinqun, principal of Liqun Chinese School, is a Cambodia born Chinese whose ancestral home is Chaozhou, Guangdong Province. The Liqun Chinese School, with over 2000 students so far, is a private school founded by him for more than 10 years. According to Xie Jinqun, Chinese is all Greek to most of the Cambodians before work because Chinese education is not their mother-tongue education, even though Chinese is the third largest language learned there, just after Cambodian and English. At the same time, like in many other countries, Chinese is very popular in Cambodia, but is extremely lacking of textbooks suitable for Chinese teaching. To resolve the status of lacking of Chinese teaching materials in Cambodia, Xie Jinqun used to go to China to seek for suitable textbooks for several times, but nothing has been found. Then, Liqun Chinese School, in cooperation with Guangzhou Jinan University Press, developed a set of Chinese textbooks for higher primary schools 10 years ago. They planned to develop another set of Chinese textbooks for junior high school in November 2012, aiming at developing a suitable set of textbooks for teaching Chinese in Cambodia.
The Chinese video teaching materials, just like the Chinese textbooks, is insufficient in Cambodia. School education in Cambodia is half time course, i.e. students only have class for half a day, and the other half day is free for students to learn other skills, such as Chinese. CD, VCD, DVD and other materials for supplementary training of Chinese speaking cater to the tastes of young people, and their schools are indeed in particular demand to these video Chinese teaching materials, indicated Xie Jinqun.
Xie Jinqun presents his concerns regarding the aging status of the Chinese teachers in Cambodia. Most of the Chinese teachers in Liqun Chinese School, who received good Chinese education in their youth, are around 60 or 70 years old. However, the present Chinese teachers of young age know little about Chinese, just as his daughter did. "I have to send my daughter to Jinan University to learn Chinese, and then let her back to teach Chinese". "The current Chinese language teaching in Cambodia are all like wading across the stream by feeling the way, and there are a lack of targeted teaching reference books for teachers", sighed Xie Jinqun.
Supporting Materials Being Welcomed
While listening to the presentation of the Chinese teachers in Cambodia, the PEP publishers also seized the opportunity to put forward their own concerns. Yin Zhongmin introduced to the Cambodian participants about the history and development of the PEP at first, expressing the desire to export all the PEP products, including the PEP textbooks.
Yin Zhongmin believes that good products require good marketing channels, which is the original intention for the cooperation between PEP and KAG. The purpose of their research in Southeast Asia is looking for channels to export products, creating suitable products for the channels, and learning about which products are in demand and which are required to be improved according to the local conditions in the host countries by applying the oversea store platforms of KAG. It is notable that the Cambodian participants are familiar with the PEP textbooks. Some participants directly expressed their happiness of growing up with learning PEP textbooks themselves when they met the PEP publishers.
The PEP textbooks they mainly used are Kuaile Hanyu (Fun Chinese) and Chinese With Me, said Cheng Xiaowei, chief of the Educational Administration Section of the Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia. The first and second volume of the Cambodian-Chinese bilingual version of Kuaile Hanyu (Fun Chinese) and Chinese With Me have been well received by students. She hopes the related third volume to be published as soon as possible, and hopes there to be more video teaching materials of Cambodian version.
In this regard, their students have some basic knowledge of Chinese, so those textbooks with compact structure and systematic knowledge are in urgent demand, indicated Zhou Liyun, a Chinese language teacher of DHY Royal University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia who published a half-page advertisement at her own expense to express her joy upon the opening of Phnom Penh Chinese Bookstore of KAG earlier. Zhou Liyun mentioned that there are 15 credit hours a week in total for Cambodia freshmen, but 9 hours have to be Cambodian learning, as a result, time for Chinese learning is limited. Therefore, those textbooks with high pertinence for students to learn Chinese quickly is required right now.
Perhaps seeing the PEP publishers makes them feel at home, Wang Yixuan, Yang Yuanjie, Yang Qiuli and Zhang Yue, as representatives of volunteers of TCFL, are very active in the seminar. They suggested adding the Sino-Cambodian cultural intercommunication to the Chinese textbooks for Cambodian. Wang Yixuan, who teaches Kuaile Hanyu (Fun Chinese) of PEP, said that she feels the language point of the book is excellent, but is presented with cultural difference. For example, it is easy for the middle school students to comprehend if adding the Day of the Dead in Cambodia (i.e. Ching Ming Festival in China) to their text. The students hope to add more daily dialogues and interesting texts to the text, as reflected by Yang Yuanjie.
Compared to the proposals from those lively TCFL volunteers, proposals from Lai Jianbo, principal of Yuk Sau International School, are more experienced. Lai Jianbo, who came to Cambodia from Guangdong in 1999, believes that there are great potential for marketing the Chinese textbooks in Cambodia, but lots of Chinese textbooks, which are founded or compiled by teachers themselves, are not programmatic and well coordinated with each other. He thinks the PEP Kuaile Hanyu (Fun Chinese) is acceptable, but it only has adult version. He hopes versions for young children and students of different ages can be published, and to publish the supporting workbooks to consolidate the knowledge of Kuaile Hanyu (Fun Chinese). The 2nd Stop
Vientiane Chinese Bookstore of KAG in Laos:
Chinese Education Seminar in Laos and PEP high-quality Textbook Promotion Event
The Chinese Education Seminar in Laos and the PEP high-quality Textbook Promotion Event was held at the Vientiane Chinese Bookstore of KAG in Laos, which is located at Building A2, Vientiane 450 Years Plaza, Khoun Boulom Street, Vientiane, at 9:00 am of December 16 (local time). This seminar, just as the Phnom Penh Seminar held on December 12, has attracted close attention of the Chinese education sector in Vientiane.
The PEP Complex of Chinese Teacher in Laos
At this seminar, Miss Tao Ju, the vice-principal of the Oversea Chinese Public Secondary School of Laos (OCPSSL in short), was very excited. OCPSSL is the largest Chinese language school in Laos. It is unexpected to communicate with PEP textbook publishers face to face, expressed Tao Ju.
It turned out that the textbooks Tao Ju used when she was an elementary school teacher in Xishuangbanna, before she immigrated to Laos with her Lao husband from Xishuangbanna of Yunnan in 1990, was published by PEP. After she arrived in Laos, she was active to promote the OCPSSL, where she was teaching, to apply PEP textbooks because of her PEP complex.
Referring to her PEP textbook Complex, Tao Ju talked about her experience of nearly being killed on her way back to Laos after purchasing PEP textbooks from Yunnan Jinghong Xinhua Bookstore in 2000. Laos are in chaos because of war at that time. She would be killed as those passengers on the intercity bus she had ordered in advance if she hadn’t transferred to another bus for an temporary affair.
She carried a large bag of Lao currency (equivalent to more than RMB 2000) to Yunnan Jinghong Xinhua Bookstore from Vientiane. The books were sent to the Sino-Laos border by Xinhua Bookstore, and Tao Ju hired someone to move the books onto a tricycle to Laos, then walked to the Oudomxai Province of Laos, and moved the books onto the intercity bus to the OCPSSL in Vientiane where Tao Ju worked. This is the process for Tao Ju purchasing textbooks for the school every year from 2000 to 2007. "It is more than 800 kilometers away, and takes two to three days to travel", said Tao Ju helplessly.
As a permanent user of PEP textbooks, Tao Ju hopes that PEP can develop a localized textbook appropriate for Chinese education in Laos. OCPSSL, a school with more than 2000 students, has conducted bilingual teaching applying the PEP textbooks, which is believed to be suitable to adopt but the content of the textbooks are prone to be too difficult after the third grade. The difficulty degree of PEP textbooks for Primary grades 4~6 are equivalent to that of Laos junior high school. They have been considering to publish a complete set of textbooks appropriate for the Chinese education for Laotian natives to compensate for the lack of textbooks for grade four, five and six of primary school in Laos. Hoping to Publish the Chinese-Laotian Textbooks
Shi Manhong seems to be calmer comparing to Tao Ju. As a Chinese teacher with Laotian nationality from Confucius Institute, Shi Manhong feels that few textbooks is appropriate to the Chinese education in Laos. Shi Manhong said that they selected the Experiencing Chinese as fundamental textbook, and 301 Chinese as speaking textbook. The students express that they don’t want to learn grammar for considering its impracticality, so they are writing a practical textbook.
There are 800 students, coming from office workers in various fields of Laos, attend her school every year, introduced by Shi Manhong. The majority of the students do not understand English, but most of the Chinese textbooks for foreigners are Chinese-English version, thus resulting in the fact that students cannot teach themselves. She hopes that Chinese-Laotian textbooks can be published so that those office workers and students can learn Chinese during the spare time in addition to learning in the classroom.
Regarding this, Zou Xiaolong, vice-principal of Hengyue International Language Training School, agrees. The students of their school are not limited, introduced by Zou Xiaolong, thus there are students aged from 6 to 55. Besides Laotians, there are also Thailanders and Koreans studying Chinese in their school, Their purpose of learning Chinese is to speak Chinese. But the students are felt to be far away from teachers for the poor interactivity of the textbooks. In addition, Zou Xiaolong hopes supporting exercises can be added, and indicates that audio-visual and other multidimensional supporting teaching materials are preferred.
Tao Ju shows her objection to the suggestion of noting Chinese textbooks with Laotian put forward by the teacher of Chinese Language. Tao Ju thinks that children usually have the characteristics of inertness. So once the Chinese is noted with Laotian, the children will read Laotian only, which is not good for their study of Chinese. Tao Ju also thinks that the meanings of Chinese words are rich and it is normal for one word with several meanings. For example, the word “打”can make up the phrases including “beat somebody”, “take a taxi”, and “ring up” etc, whose meanings are very difficult to be interpreted with Laotian. And the best method is to interpret the Chinese words with Chinese. Then the students may not know the meaning when they are in elementary school, but they may understand naturally in high school with age. “When teaching Chinese, we must talk about the history of Chinese culture. However, today’s students want to learn about present China only, that is also a problem.” This is another problem posed by Shi Manhong. The Laotian Kang Nifen who has studied Chinese for 5 years in Yunnan Dali University also caught the opportunity to suggest the People’s Education Press to make a set of textbook matched with Chinese Video.
The 3rd Stop
Overseas Capital Chinese Public High School in Laos:
Colloquium and Getting into the Classroom, Library, and Storeroom
Visiting the Overseas Capital Chinese Public High School, the largest Chinese school in Laos at 10:00 am on December 19 (local time), was the last station for the research of publishers from People’s Education Press. There, they were warmly receipted by Mr. Lin Junxiong, the Chairman and President of the school.
According to Lin Junxiong, the Capital Public School was built at early previous century. It was proposed by the leaders of patriotic overseas Chinese including Chen Liufang, Cai Yingshi, Cai He, Wu Dingxing, etc. with the concerted effort of other Chinese and overseas Chinese. They donated money and materials to rebuild the original private classes as formal institution. Then the institution was named as Capital Public High School, which means the Overseas Chinese Public High School in the capital of Laos. The school, with a history of 75 years, is now equipped with 46 teachers, 28 of them are volunteers from the mainland of China and one from Hong Kong. There are over 2000 students in total at present, which is increasing at a rate of 10% annually. In August 2009, the school was granted the title of the first Chinese Education Demonstration Schools by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of State Council. 13 persons including Chen Lifang, Li Xiuzhen, and Tao Ju, etc. have been conferred Lifetime Achievement Award, Outstanding Contribution Award, and Excellence Awards respectively by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of State Council in November 2011.
Lin Junxiong talked much about how to improve the level of Chinese teachers in the colloquium. He said that in order to narrow the gap between the teaching levels of Capital Public High School and that in China, the school had employed the dual-track approach in the source of teachers and the building of teachers: introducing outstanding teachers from China on the one hand and sending those native youths interested in Chinese and in-service teachers for further study in China. In the Capital Public High School, the publishers of People's Education Press stepped into the classroom, library and storeroom filled up with textbooks, interacting with the teachers and students actively. When seeing students in class using textbooks of People's Education Press, they showed knowing smile. At that moment, the kids handed up and greeted the guests from far away in Chinese enthusiastically.
Tao Ju, the Vice-president of the Capital Public High School, warmly brought everyone to visit the storerooms filled up with textbooks. It seemed to demonstrate her genuine support for those books of People's Education Press by pointing to them one by one. Her lovely action won enthusiastic response of the publishers.
The reporters noted that, although the Capital Public High School is far away in Vientiane, Laos, it is actually not so far away from us. While walking into the school, you will see on both sides of the main teaching building are slogans as "Popularize Chinese Mandarin and Unit the World as One" and "Speak Chinese and Make Friends Everywhere in the World”, which declares publicly that it is not different from any of those domestic schools in China. The source of teacher in Capital Public High School is relatively stable. In addition to participate in various classes for the training of teachers organized by the Ministry of Education in Laos, the teachers also attend the regularly learning organized by the school itself in to update the expertise and teaching methods of teachers constantly to keep up with the beat of the times.
Postscript: Get into the Host Country to Feel Chinese Fever
You can learn about whether the China books acclimatize in the host country only after field research. Peer publishers have also genuinely felt the efforts made by Chinese publishers for “Going-Out”, and the difficulty for China books going out.
With the help of the channel platforms provided by our cooperator, Kunming Xinzhi Group, publishers of People’s Education Press went to do field research on one and another site within a week. Although tired, everyone was still very happy, for nothing could be more exciting than getting the first-hand market information.
We still remember that when we visited Kiev Kanharith, the Minister of News Department of Kingdom of Cambodia in the morning on December 12th, he told us enthusiastically that, in Cambodia, it is very important to know Chinese. The News Department sends officials to learn Chinese in Yanbian of China each year and those officials return for service after getting master’s degree. Meanwhile, the Department recruits officials who understand Chinese to contact with China. Now, there is a policy in Cambodia that 1500 students can be funded with U.S. $ 100 per capita to learn Chinese. For this, the senior translator Mr. Ling Xiqiu, who has been living in Cambodia for 50 years, thinks that there is foundation for Cambodia to develop Chinese, for the population of Chinese is about 60,0000, taking 3% of the total population. Only the population of Chinese in the capital Phnom Penh is over 30,0000. In addition, the number of Chinese enterprises registered in Chamber of Commerce is over 70, with more than 3,0000 practitioners. Meanwhile, people understanding Chinese are also necessary for the promotion of the economic and cultural exchange between China and Cambodia.
Chinese fever appears due to the relatively high salary for working in Chinese enterprises. Liu Minhui, the general manager of Haw Wan Enterprise Co. in Phnom Penh, told the reporter the monthly income of Cambodian was generally about U.S.$ 80. However, the monthly income could reach U.S.$ 200 if they work in Chinese enterprises. The 12 Cambodian staff of Haw Wan Enterprise Co. in Phnom Penh are not willing to leave because the monthly income is relatively high and they can study Chinese there after it started in October 29th in 2011.
The demand of textbooks of People’s Education Press is optimistic according to Liu Minhui. According to the introduction, the book of People’s Education Press has been sold over 80 volumes since the beginning of sale in October, with fixed price approximately 3000 RMB. The main consumer group is the workers of Chinese enterprises in Cambodia. Most of them came to work in Phnom Penh with their children. They worry about the textbooks are unequal to the textbooks learned at home due to the limitation of textbooks. Hence, they selected the textbooks of People’s Education Press for children’s self-study and parents’ remedial teaching. Meanwhile, Liu Minhui admitted that children’s interest in self-study would be stimulated greatly, if the textbooks were matched with multimedia teaching materials, which would also lead to the sales growth of textbooks of People’s Education Press.
The situation of Haw Wan Enterprise Co. in Vientiane is similar to that of Haw Wan Enterprise Co. in Phnom Penh. Zhang Rui, the manager of Haw Wan Enterprise Co. of Vientiane, said, the products of People’s Education Press has sold 56 volumes since October, with the sales fixed price around RMB 2000. The main consumer group is Chinese teachers from the Capital Public High School and from other province of Laos. Zhang Rui also thought that the products such as talking pen are the most popular for the Chinese education in Laos.
The peer publishers felt obviously that Chinese fever has same temperature in Laos and Cambodia, just as the high temperature over 30℃ in tropical countries. The temperature affected the researchers of People’s Education Press, the staff of Kunming Xinzhi Group, as well as more publishers intended to make the China Book internationalized.
What’s the sales status of PEP products, especially the PEP textbooks, in the host countries 100 days later? What are the needs of the host countries to the PEP products? What should be done to improve the export of the PEP products? From 11th to 19th, December, Yin Zhongmin, president of the PEP, led the publishers and editors of the PEP Textbooks Center, International Marketing Department, Marketing and Training Department, Electronic Audio and Video Publishing House to conduct field researches to the Phnom Penh Chinese Bookstore (Cambodia) and the Vientiane Chinese Bookstore (Laos) of KAG, and the Oversea Chinese Public Secondary School of Laos.
The 1st Stop
Phnom Penh Chinese bookstore of KAG in Cambodia:
Chinese Education Seminar in Cambodia and PEP high-quality Textbook Promotion Event
The Chinese Education Seminar in Cambodia and PEP high-quality Textbook Promotion Event held at Phnom Penh Chinese bookstore of KAG, No. 83 Kim Il-Sung Avenue, Tuol Kork District, Phnom Penh Municipal, at 14:00 December 12 (local time). PEP publishers, together with graduate representatives from the Confucius Institute, DHY Royal University of Phnom Penh, Liqun Chinese School of Phnom Penh, Yuk Sau International School and Chinese School in Cambodia held lively conversations on the use and demand of the Chinese education and Chinese textbooks.
There are three major concerns proposed by the participants of Cambodia: firstly, lack of Chinese textbooks suitable for Chinese education in Cambodia; secondly, urgent need for targeted Chinese video teaching materials; thirdly, urgent training of Chinese language teachers.
Chinese Education Being Restricted by the Lack of Textbooks and Teachers
Xie Jinqun, principal of Liqun Chinese School, is a Cambodia born Chinese whose ancestral home is Chaozhou, Guangdong Province. The Liqun Chinese School, with over 2000 students so far, is a private school founded by him for more than 10 years. According to Xie Jinqun, Chinese is all Greek to most of the Cambodians before work because Chinese education is not their mother-tongue education, even though Chinese is the third largest language learned there, just after Cambodian and English. At the same time, like in many other countries, Chinese is very popular in Cambodia, but is extremely lacking of textbooks suitable for Chinese teaching. To resolve the status of lacking of Chinese teaching materials in Cambodia, Xie Jinqun used to go to China to seek for suitable textbooks for several times, but nothing has been found. Then, Liqun Chinese School, in cooperation with Guangzhou Jinan University Press, developed a set of Chinese textbooks for higher primary schools 10 years ago. They planned to develop another set of Chinese textbooks for junior high school in November 2012, aiming at developing a suitable set of textbooks for teaching Chinese in Cambodia.
The Chinese video teaching materials, just like the Chinese textbooks, is insufficient in Cambodia. School education in Cambodia is half time course, i.e. students only have class for half a day, and the other half day is free for students to learn other skills, such as Chinese. CD, VCD, DVD and other materials for supplementary training of Chinese speaking cater to the tastes of young people, and their schools are indeed in particular demand to these video Chinese teaching materials, indicated Xie Jinqun.
Xie Jinqun presents his concerns regarding the aging status of the Chinese teachers in Cambodia. Most of the Chinese teachers in Liqun Chinese School, who received good Chinese education in their youth, are around 60 or 70 years old. However, the present Chinese teachers of young age know little about Chinese, just as his daughter did. "I have to send my daughter to Jinan University to learn Chinese, and then let her back to teach Chinese". "The current Chinese language teaching in Cambodia are all like wading across the stream by feeling the way, and there are a lack of targeted teaching reference books for teachers", sighed Xie Jinqun.
Supporting Materials Being Welcomed
While listening to the presentation of the Chinese teachers in Cambodia, the PEP publishers also seized the opportunity to put forward their own concerns. Yin Zhongmin introduced to the Cambodian participants about the history and development of the PEP at first, expressing the desire to export all the PEP products, including the PEP textbooks.
Yin Zhongmin believes that good products require good marketing channels, which is the original intention for the cooperation between PEP and KAG. The purpose of their research in Southeast Asia is looking for channels to export products, creating suitable products for the channels, and learning about which products are in demand and which are required to be improved according to the local conditions in the host countries by applying the oversea store platforms of KAG. It is notable that the Cambodian participants are familiar with the PEP textbooks. Some participants directly expressed their happiness of growing up with learning PEP textbooks themselves when they met the PEP publishers.
The PEP textbooks they mainly used are Kuaile Hanyu (Fun Chinese) and Chinese With Me, said Cheng Xiaowei, chief of the Educational Administration Section of the Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia. The first and second volume of the Cambodian-Chinese bilingual version of Kuaile Hanyu (Fun Chinese) and Chinese With Me have been well received by students. She hopes the related third volume to be published as soon as possible, and hopes there to be more video teaching materials of Cambodian version.
In this regard, their students have some basic knowledge of Chinese, so those textbooks with compact structure and systematic knowledge are in urgent demand, indicated Zhou Liyun, a Chinese language teacher of DHY Royal University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia who published a half-page advertisement at her own expense to express her joy upon the opening of Phnom Penh Chinese Bookstore of KAG earlier. Zhou Liyun mentioned that there are 15 credit hours a week in total for Cambodia freshmen, but 9 hours have to be Cambodian learning, as a result, time for Chinese learning is limited. Therefore, those textbooks with high pertinence for students to learn Chinese quickly is required right now.
Perhaps seeing the PEP publishers makes them feel at home, Wang Yixuan, Yang Yuanjie, Yang Qiuli and Zhang Yue, as representatives of volunteers of TCFL, are very active in the seminar. They suggested adding the Sino-Cambodian cultural intercommunication to the Chinese textbooks for Cambodian. Wang Yixuan, who teaches Kuaile Hanyu (Fun Chinese) of PEP, said that she feels the language point of the book is excellent, but is presented with cultural difference. For example, it is easy for the middle school students to comprehend if adding the Day of the Dead in Cambodia (i.e. Ching Ming Festival in China) to their text. The students hope to add more daily dialogues and interesting texts to the text, as reflected by Yang Yuanjie.
Compared to the proposals from those lively TCFL volunteers, proposals from Lai Jianbo, principal of Yuk Sau International School, are more experienced. Lai Jianbo, who came to Cambodia from Guangdong in 1999, believes that there are great potential for marketing the Chinese textbooks in Cambodia, but lots of Chinese textbooks, which are founded or compiled by teachers themselves, are not programmatic and well coordinated with each other. He thinks the PEP Kuaile Hanyu (Fun Chinese) is acceptable, but it only has adult version. He hopes versions for young children and students of different ages can be published, and to publish the supporting workbooks to consolidate the knowledge of Kuaile Hanyu (Fun Chinese). The 2nd Stop
Vientiane Chinese Bookstore of KAG in Laos:
Chinese Education Seminar in Laos and PEP high-quality Textbook Promotion Event
The Chinese Education Seminar in Laos and the PEP high-quality Textbook Promotion Event was held at the Vientiane Chinese Bookstore of KAG in Laos, which is located at Building A2, Vientiane 450 Years Plaza, Khoun Boulom Street, Vientiane, at 9:00 am of December 16 (local time). This seminar, just as the Phnom Penh Seminar held on December 12, has attracted close attention of the Chinese education sector in Vientiane.
The PEP Complex of Chinese Teacher in Laos
At this seminar, Miss Tao Ju, the vice-principal of the Oversea Chinese Public Secondary School of Laos (OCPSSL in short), was very excited. OCPSSL is the largest Chinese language school in Laos. It is unexpected to communicate with PEP textbook publishers face to face, expressed Tao Ju.
It turned out that the textbooks Tao Ju used when she was an elementary school teacher in Xishuangbanna, before she immigrated to Laos with her Lao husband from Xishuangbanna of Yunnan in 1990, was published by PEP. After she arrived in Laos, she was active to promote the OCPSSL, where she was teaching, to apply PEP textbooks because of her PEP complex.
Referring to her PEP textbook Complex, Tao Ju talked about her experience of nearly being killed on her way back to Laos after purchasing PEP textbooks from Yunnan Jinghong Xinhua Bookstore in 2000. Laos are in chaos because of war at that time. She would be killed as those passengers on the intercity bus she had ordered in advance if she hadn’t transferred to another bus for an temporary affair.
She carried a large bag of Lao currency (equivalent to more than RMB 2000) to Yunnan Jinghong Xinhua Bookstore from Vientiane. The books were sent to the Sino-Laos border by Xinhua Bookstore, and Tao Ju hired someone to move the books onto a tricycle to Laos, then walked to the Oudomxai Province of Laos, and moved the books onto the intercity bus to the OCPSSL in Vientiane where Tao Ju worked. This is the process for Tao Ju purchasing textbooks for the school every year from 2000 to 2007. "It is more than 800 kilometers away, and takes two to three days to travel", said Tao Ju helplessly.
As a permanent user of PEP textbooks, Tao Ju hopes that PEP can develop a localized textbook appropriate for Chinese education in Laos. OCPSSL, a school with more than 2000 students, has conducted bilingual teaching applying the PEP textbooks, which is believed to be suitable to adopt but the content of the textbooks are prone to be too difficult after the third grade. The difficulty degree of PEP textbooks for Primary grades 4~6 are equivalent to that of Laos junior high school. They have been considering to publish a complete set of textbooks appropriate for the Chinese education for Laotian natives to compensate for the lack of textbooks for grade four, five and six of primary school in Laos. Hoping to Publish the Chinese-Laotian Textbooks
Shi Manhong seems to be calmer comparing to Tao Ju. As a Chinese teacher with Laotian nationality from Confucius Institute, Shi Manhong feels that few textbooks is appropriate to the Chinese education in Laos. Shi Manhong said that they selected the Experiencing Chinese as fundamental textbook, and 301 Chinese as speaking textbook. The students express that they don’t want to learn grammar for considering its impracticality, so they are writing a practical textbook.
There are 800 students, coming from office workers in various fields of Laos, attend her school every year, introduced by Shi Manhong. The majority of the students do not understand English, but most of the Chinese textbooks for foreigners are Chinese-English version, thus resulting in the fact that students cannot teach themselves. She hopes that Chinese-Laotian textbooks can be published so that those office workers and students can learn Chinese during the spare time in addition to learning in the classroom.
Regarding this, Zou Xiaolong, vice-principal of Hengyue International Language Training School, agrees. The students of their school are not limited, introduced by Zou Xiaolong, thus there are students aged from 6 to 55. Besides Laotians, there are also Thailanders and Koreans studying Chinese in their school, Their purpose of learning Chinese is to speak Chinese. But the students are felt to be far away from teachers for the poor interactivity of the textbooks. In addition, Zou Xiaolong hopes supporting exercises can be added, and indicates that audio-visual and other multidimensional supporting teaching materials are preferred.
Tao Ju shows her objection to the suggestion of noting Chinese textbooks with Laotian put forward by the teacher of Chinese Language. Tao Ju thinks that children usually have the characteristics of inertness. So once the Chinese is noted with Laotian, the children will read Laotian only, which is not good for their study of Chinese. Tao Ju also thinks that the meanings of Chinese words are rich and it is normal for one word with several meanings. For example, the word “打”can make up the phrases including “beat somebody”, “take a taxi”, and “ring up” etc, whose meanings are very difficult to be interpreted with Laotian. And the best method is to interpret the Chinese words with Chinese. Then the students may not know the meaning when they are in elementary school, but they may understand naturally in high school with age. “When teaching Chinese, we must talk about the history of Chinese culture. However, today’s students want to learn about present China only, that is also a problem.” This is another problem posed by Shi Manhong. The Laotian Kang Nifen who has studied Chinese for 5 years in Yunnan Dali University also caught the opportunity to suggest the People’s Education Press to make a set of textbook matched with Chinese Video.
The 3rd Stop
Overseas Capital Chinese Public High School in Laos:
Colloquium and Getting into the Classroom, Library, and Storeroom
Visiting the Overseas Capital Chinese Public High School, the largest Chinese school in Laos at 10:00 am on December 19 (local time), was the last station for the research of publishers from People’s Education Press. There, they were warmly receipted by Mr. Lin Junxiong, the Chairman and President of the school.
According to Lin Junxiong, the Capital Public School was built at early previous century. It was proposed by the leaders of patriotic overseas Chinese including Chen Liufang, Cai Yingshi, Cai He, Wu Dingxing, etc. with the concerted effort of other Chinese and overseas Chinese. They donated money and materials to rebuild the original private classes as formal institution. Then the institution was named as Capital Public High School, which means the Overseas Chinese Public High School in the capital of Laos. The school, with a history of 75 years, is now equipped with 46 teachers, 28 of them are volunteers from the mainland of China and one from Hong Kong. There are over 2000 students in total at present, which is increasing at a rate of 10% annually. In August 2009, the school was granted the title of the first Chinese Education Demonstration Schools by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of State Council. 13 persons including Chen Lifang, Li Xiuzhen, and Tao Ju, etc. have been conferred Lifetime Achievement Award, Outstanding Contribution Award, and Excellence Awards respectively by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of State Council in November 2011.
Lin Junxiong talked much about how to improve the level of Chinese teachers in the colloquium. He said that in order to narrow the gap between the teaching levels of Capital Public High School and that in China, the school had employed the dual-track approach in the source of teachers and the building of teachers: introducing outstanding teachers from China on the one hand and sending those native youths interested in Chinese and in-service teachers for further study in China. In the Capital Public High School, the publishers of People's Education Press stepped into the classroom, library and storeroom filled up with textbooks, interacting with the teachers and students actively. When seeing students in class using textbooks of People's Education Press, they showed knowing smile. At that moment, the kids handed up and greeted the guests from far away in Chinese enthusiastically.
Tao Ju, the Vice-president of the Capital Public High School, warmly brought everyone to visit the storerooms filled up with textbooks. It seemed to demonstrate her genuine support for those books of People's Education Press by pointing to them one by one. Her lovely action won enthusiastic response of the publishers.
The reporters noted that, although the Capital Public High School is far away in Vientiane, Laos, it is actually not so far away from us. While walking into the school, you will see on both sides of the main teaching building are slogans as "Popularize Chinese Mandarin and Unit the World as One" and "Speak Chinese and Make Friends Everywhere in the World”, which declares publicly that it is not different from any of those domestic schools in China. The source of teacher in Capital Public High School is relatively stable. In addition to participate in various classes for the training of teachers organized by the Ministry of Education in Laos, the teachers also attend the regularly learning organized by the school itself in to update the expertise and teaching methods of teachers constantly to keep up with the beat of the times.
Postscript: Get into the Host Country to Feel Chinese Fever
You can learn about whether the China books acclimatize in the host country only after field research. Peer publishers have also genuinely felt the efforts made by Chinese publishers for “Going-Out”, and the difficulty for China books going out.
With the help of the channel platforms provided by our cooperator, Kunming Xinzhi Group, publishers of People’s Education Press went to do field research on one and another site within a week. Although tired, everyone was still very happy, for nothing could be more exciting than getting the first-hand market information.
We still remember that when we visited Kiev Kanharith, the Minister of News Department of Kingdom of Cambodia in the morning on December 12th, he told us enthusiastically that, in Cambodia, it is very important to know Chinese. The News Department sends officials to learn Chinese in Yanbian of China each year and those officials return for service after getting master’s degree. Meanwhile, the Department recruits officials who understand Chinese to contact with China. Now, there is a policy in Cambodia that 1500 students can be funded with U.S. $ 100 per capita to learn Chinese. For this, the senior translator Mr. Ling Xiqiu, who has been living in Cambodia for 50 years, thinks that there is foundation for Cambodia to develop Chinese, for the population of Chinese is about 60,0000, taking 3% of the total population. Only the population of Chinese in the capital Phnom Penh is over 30,0000. In addition, the number of Chinese enterprises registered in Chamber of Commerce is over 70, with more than 3,0000 practitioners. Meanwhile, people understanding Chinese are also necessary for the promotion of the economic and cultural exchange between China and Cambodia.
Chinese fever appears due to the relatively high salary for working in Chinese enterprises. Liu Minhui, the general manager of Haw Wan Enterprise Co. in Phnom Penh, told the reporter the monthly income of Cambodian was generally about U.S.$ 80. However, the monthly income could reach U.S.$ 200 if they work in Chinese enterprises. The 12 Cambodian staff of Haw Wan Enterprise Co. in Phnom Penh are not willing to leave because the monthly income is relatively high and they can study Chinese there after it started in October 29th in 2011.
The demand of textbooks of People’s Education Press is optimistic according to Liu Minhui. According to the introduction, the book of People’s Education Press has been sold over 80 volumes since the beginning of sale in October, with fixed price approximately 3000 RMB. The main consumer group is the workers of Chinese enterprises in Cambodia. Most of them came to work in Phnom Penh with their children. They worry about the textbooks are unequal to the textbooks learned at home due to the limitation of textbooks. Hence, they selected the textbooks of People’s Education Press for children’s self-study and parents’ remedial teaching. Meanwhile, Liu Minhui admitted that children’s interest in self-study would be stimulated greatly, if the textbooks were matched with multimedia teaching materials, which would also lead to the sales growth of textbooks of People’s Education Press.
The situation of Haw Wan Enterprise Co. in Vientiane is similar to that of Haw Wan Enterprise Co. in Phnom Penh. Zhang Rui, the manager of Haw Wan Enterprise Co. of Vientiane, said, the products of People’s Education Press has sold 56 volumes since October, with the sales fixed price around RMB 2000. The main consumer group is Chinese teachers from the Capital Public High School and from other province of Laos. Zhang Rui also thought that the products such as talking pen are the most popular for the Chinese education in Laos.
The peer publishers felt obviously that Chinese fever has same temperature in Laos and Cambodia, just as the high temperature over 30℃ in tropical countries. The temperature affected the researchers of People’s Education Press, the staff of Kunming Xinzhi Group, as well as more publishers intended to make the China Book internationalized.