Chinese students and educators are questioning the importance of learning English as artificial intelligence enables more accessibility in translating languages.
For the last few decades, English has been a core component of Chinese education for children, taught alongside math and Chinese. Learning the language has traditionally been viewed as an important tool for international communication and setting up future educational and business opportunities.
However, the debate over its necessity reignited earlier this month after Tang Jiafeng, a math teacher in China, called for English to become an optional subject in schools across the country. Tang made the proposal on social media, which led to arguments about whether schools should reduce the amount of time students spend studying English.
According to a report by The New York Times, some parents and teachers welcomed the suggestion. Critics have said that China’s nationwide English curriculum places an emphasis on grammar and testing and does not translate into English proficiency.
Tang’s framing of the issue, calling it the “blind worship of foreign imports,” also struck a nerve. Wang Zichen, a foreign policy analyst at Beijing’s Center for China and Globalization, said that the phrase is particularly inflammatory in China because it can “imply that you are compromising your own dignity in relation to a more powerful outsider.”
Meanwhile, Hu Xijin, the former editor of the Communist newspaper the Global Times, said that the matter was being politicized by individuals promoting nationalism. Hu wrote, “The public should not be fooled by them, and I hope the education department will ignore them.”
The debate has particularly been affected by the rise of AI. With the new technology already causing major changes in multiple industries, educators are questioning what skills are still useful for students to learn.
Some Chinese schools have already begun pulling back on English requirements over the last few years due to AI. In July, a research university in Shenzhen said that English courses would be phased out due to the ability of AI to generate translations in real time.
“When young people are feeling particularly economically precarious,” said Gina Tam, an associate professor of history at Trinity University, “Is the ability to engage with global audiences with English going to be a marketable skill for Chinese young people? Or is it going to be superfluous?”
