Ethiopians Learn Mandarin Chinese for New Business Opportunity
Young Ethiopians prepare themselves for potential new opportunities as the country sees an increase in the number of Chinese flocking to the country.
Hundreds of Ethiopians students are learning Mandarin in the hope of finding new opportunities in a country with Chinese businesses.
The Ethio-China Polytechnic College in Addis Ababa, the first Chinese language school of its kind, was built by the Chinese government upon the invitation from Ethiopia.
The college run by Ethiopia’s Confucius institute in collaboration with China’s global non-profit public institution is aimed at promoting Chinese culture.
Nineteen years old Nebeyu Ijersa says mandarin is not easy but he needs to improve his chances of working for some of the lucrative Chinese owned businesses in the country or going to china.
There are currently 250 students. The Confucius institute plans to increase the number of students to nearly 1000 by 2011. Teshome Aklilu, a student of the college, says learning the language will open him up to learning new skills.
Zhai Fengjie is the director of the Confucius institute in Ethiopia. She says there are currently 23 Confucius schools in Africa and this one in Addis Ababa is the latest institution opened in November, 2009.
