Chinese lessons prove popular in Pakistan’s tribal areas

Students in Khyber Agency take the first ever Chinese language course in FATA. (AN photo)

PESHAWAR: The first Mandarin language courses offered in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have proved very popular, according to the organizers.
“We have long been thinking of starting Chinese language classes,” Mohammed Farooq, principal of Government Shaheed Abdul Azam High School in the Jamrud subdivision of Khyber Agency, told Arab News.
Farooq claimed that 300 students have so far enrolled in the course, mainly attracted by the “huge” China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which will mean, he said, that the ability to communicate in Chinese will enhance employment opportunities in a number of areas “including interpreters.”
Zahid Khan, who helped launch the Chinese language course, told Arab News that the course was inspired by two needs.
“Firstly, our region is coming into the limelight because of CPEC projects and the language can help people get jobs in future, and secondly many Chinese come here for Tableegh (preaching of Islam) and we interact with them quite often,” he said.
The Chinese-language teacher at the high school said he was originally inspired to learn Mandarin by a group of visiting Chinese Muslim preachers.
“I used to interact with the Chinese preachers and later I did a course in the Chinese language from Karachi University,” he said.
Noshad Khan, a student on the course, told Arab News that he attends his college in the morning and takes the Mandarin course in the afternoon.
” I am eager to take the course and learn Chinese, and for that I am at two schools at the same time,” he explained.
The course’s inaugural ceremony was held this week, and was attended by tribal elders, educators, and politician Shah Jee Gul, who sponsored the first batch of students.
The four-month course will normally cost Rs5,000 ($45.25).
“Though the first batch has been sponsored and students are not being charged, we plan to begin charging in order to pay the teacher and meet other expenses. This way we will be able to sustain the initiative,” said Farooq.