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. ?

阿拉貝拉（左）Arabella Kushner (left), Donald Trump’s granddaughter

比利時公主伊麗莎白Princess Elisabeth of Belgium

荷蘭公主凱瑟琳娜·艾瑪利婭Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands

泰國詩琳通公主 Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand

王子公主學中文

近日，美國總統特朗普在訪華期間，秀出自己外孫女阿拉貝拉的中文水平。六歲的阿拉貝拉唱中文歌、背中文詩，不但獲得了習近平主席的夸贊，稱呼她為“小明星”，還給伊麗莎白的表現A+的成績。此舉也獲得了廣大中國網友的點贊。川普外孫女通過學習中文讓自己成為了中美外交的小使者，也再次證明了讓自己的孩子學習中文是一筆很棒的投資！根據新華社的報道，阿拉貝拉在自己16個月大的時候就開始跟隨自己的中國保姆學習中文了。

其實阿拉貝拉并不是我們認識的第一個能熟練掌握中文的外國小孩，如今在王室之間學習中文已經成為了一種新風尚。多國王室都在要求孩子學中文呢！比如來自比利時的16歲公主伊麗莎白，就在布魯塞爾的學校學習中文。

與其鄰近的荷蘭王室也不例外。荷蘭公主凱瑟琳娜·艾瑪利婭，荷蘭王室的繼承人，在2016年就開始學習中文了。

同時丹麥的王室也表現出對中國文化和中文有著強烈興趣的歐洲王室之一。除了丹麥語、法語、和英語，從2014年開始，中文也是丹麥王室網站上使用的語言之一了。此外，在亞洲王室之中中文也是第二流行的亞洲語言。泰國的詩琳通公主學習中文已經有數年了，而她流利的中文也讓她獲得了“中國友好使者”的頭銜。

各國王室對于學習中文的熱情讓越來越多人開始了解和學習中文。據新華社報道，學習中國的外國人，已從2005年的三千萬人增加到現在的一億人,60多個國家已將漢語教學納入本國教育系統。?