Royal Children Set about Learning Chinese

Royal Children Set about Learning Chinese

Learning Chinese has once again been proven as a great investment in children’s education after U.S. President Donald Trump’s granddaughter successfully played her diplomatic role and facilitated Trump’s successful visit to China by singing a Chinese song and reciting poetry in Mandarin.

Arabella Kushner, a six-year-old Chinese learner, has been hailed by Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “little star,” who also graded her performance with an “A+.” According to Xinhua News Agency, she started learning Mandarin from her Chinese nanny when she was just 16 months old.

Arabella is not the first foreign kid famous for her proficiency in Chinese. Learning Chinese has already become a new trend in royal families.Elisabeth, 16-year-old Princess of Belgium, studied Chinese in a Dutch speaking school in Brussels.

Such a move also happened in the neighboring Dutch monarchy. Catharina-Amalia, the heir to the Dutch throne, started learning Chinese in Hague in 2016.

Meanwhile, the Danish monarchy is another European royal family which has shown a keen interest in China and its culture and language.Apart from Danish, French, and English, Chinese is among one of the four languages used on the royal family’s website since 2014.

Chinese also appears to be a popular second language in Asian royal families. Princess Sirindhorn has been learning about Chinese culture and arts and has been studying Chinese language for years. Her proficiency in Chinese has earned her a title of “good friend of China,”enabling her to be a true envoy for Sino-Thai relations.

Royal enthusiasm in learning Chinese has led to an increasing number of foreign Chinese learners.According to the Xinhua News Agency, the number of foreigners learning Chinese has grown from 30 million in 2005 to 100 million today, with more than 60 countries now offering Chinese as part of their national education system. ♦

阿拉贝拉（左）Arabella Kushner (left), Donald Trump’s granddaughter

比利时公主伊丽莎白Princess Elisabeth of Belgium

荷兰公主凯瑟琳娜·艾玛利娅Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands

泰国诗琳通公主 Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand

王子公主学中文

近日，美国总统特朗普在访华期间，秀出自己外孙女阿拉贝拉的中文水平。六岁的阿拉贝拉唱中文歌、背中文诗，不但获得了习近平主席的夸赞，称呼她为“小明星”，还给伊丽莎白的表现A+的成绩。此举也获得了广大中国网友的点赞。川普外孙女通过学习中文让自己成为了中美外交的小使者，也再次证明了让自己的孩子学习中文是一笔很棒的投资！根据新华社的报道，阿拉贝拉在自己16个月大的时候就开始跟随自己的中国保姆学习中文了。

其实阿拉贝拉并不是我们认识的第一个能熟练掌握中文的外国小孩，如今在王室之间学习中文已经成为了一种新风尚。多国王室都在要求孩子学中文呢！比如来自比利时的16岁公主伊丽莎白，就在布鲁塞尔的学校学习中文。

与其邻近的荷兰王室也不例外。荷兰公主凯瑟琳娜·艾玛利娅，荷兰王室的继承人，在2016年就开始学习中文了。

同时丹麦的王室也表现出对中国文化和中文有着强烈兴趣的欧洲王室之一。除了丹麦语、法语、和英语，从2014年开始，中文也是丹麦王室网站上使用的语言之一了。此外，在亚洲王室之中中文也是第二流行的亚洲语言。泰国的诗琳通公主学习中文已经有数年了，而她流利的中文也让她获得了“中国友好使者”的头衔。

各国王室对于学习中文的热情让越来越多人开始了解和学习中文。据新华社报道，学习中国的外国人，已从2005年的三千万人增加到现在的一亿人,60多个国家已将汉语教学纳入本国教育系统。♦