There are some problems exist in language. For over one hundred years, Chinese language planning is mainly for solving the language problems. Teachers in Chinese language school should know that there are three problems we need to solve. The first one should be the problem of communication barriers which is the biggest. There are 55 ethnic peoples in China, but we have formed the common language Mandarin as the general language in China.
In the whole world, more than six thousands languages are spoken. It means there are more problems in the international communication. For the purpose of cross culture communication, we learn foreign languages to communicate with the world. At the same time, the foreigners should also learn Mandarin or other languages in China to know more about China and then communicate with Chinese people.
The second problem is the cost of language communication. It will take a high cost to communicate by language. We need cost something to study Chinese or other languages. The last but not least is the language pressure. In the process of promoting language communication, some languages become stronger because they are widely used while some languages or dialects are in danger because fewer people speak them.
Solving language problems is still an important language work in China and also a task to promote us to the world. However, in the same time, we should realize that the language is also a kind of resource. This idea draws much attention from many people and it is widely spread. Those who study in China may know that it has become an important idea for China to formulate language policies.
Generally speaking, there are three classifications of language resources. The first one is the natural language resource. Teachers in Mandarin learning courses should know there are three types of natural languages in China, namely, Mandarin and related dialects (including Chinese characters), ethnic languages and foreign languages.
What we should emphasize is that foreign language is also natural language resource. The foreign language ability is an important ability of the individual and important part of national language ability. As times goes by, the globalization is quickened. Nowadays, China‘s benefits exist in any place in the world. Therefore, any kind of language should be mastered by our country. In the same sense, other countries also need us. That’s the reason more and more people come to learn Chinese in China.
The second type of language resource is the derivative language resource which is the resource formed by the research and processing of natural language, including language knowledge and the application in all aspects. Students who learn Chinese language may know that this resource includes mainly language knowledge, language product and language technology.
In addition, the language ability of the citizens is also important language resource because it is people that combine natural language with the derivative language resource. When foreigners learn Mandarin Chinese in China, they may be told that citizens’ language ability should be firstly the natural language ability. Only they have this ability can the national language can be inherited. The citizens‘ language ability is improved nowadays in China but not good enough.
During the process of learning Mandarin Chinese, the foreigners may have found that our task of language work was originally to promote Mandarin, language reformation and formulate Chinese Pinyin scheme. In order to keep pace with the times, we now move our attention to the normalization, standardization and informatization of Chinese language. Therefore, it is meaningful to improve citizens‘ language ability.
The national language ability is formed by adding citizens‘ language ability together. When foreigners come to study Mandarin Chinese, they should know that the so-called “national language ability” means the ability of country to provide language support when dealing with the affaires home and abroad. When earthquakes happen, if the rescue workers fail to communicate with the victims, it will bring negative influence on the rescue work.
In brief, there are some problems still exist in language. Therefore, we should take measures to solve those problems. At the same time, we should realize that language is also a kind of resource and we should take advantage of it.