【推荐1】Who wants to learn Chinese? Just about everybody in the world, it seems. The demand for Chinese as a foreign language is growing fast, both in English-speaking countries, such as Britain and the USA, and in other countries like France, where the number of students studying Chinese has increased each year in recent years.

There are a number of reasons for the interest. As China develops economically, opportunities for doing business increase dramatically-and if you know your partner's language, your chances of success increase. But there is also a renewed interest in the culture and traditions of China; the fact that Chinese culture has continued uninterrupted for more than 5,000 years is a source of curiosity and fascination for people in other parts of the world. A third reason is that learning Chinese is, simply, a challenge. With its characters and complicated tone system, most speakers of other languages think Chinese must be incredibly difficult. But is it really so? As one American student says, "The biggest problem about learning Chinese is often fear-sometimes caused by the teacher. I've studied quite a few languages, and none of them are as easy for me as Chinese. The grammar is easy, since sentence order is similar to English-but simpler."

With so much interest in the language, the Chinese government introduced an international exam system-HSK. Established in 1990, the HSK test was initially meant for those learners who regard Chinese as a second or foreign language. Later, it was introduced abroad. By 2016, there are about 980 exam centres in more than 120 countries around the world, with nearly 464,000 candidates taking the exam in 2016. And a spin-off of this is that teaching Chinese as a foreign language offers young Chinese language graduates interesting professional opportunities-and a chance travel across the world.

【推荐3】English is not easy to learn——most common verbs are irregular (不规则的) and it has a large vocabulary—at least 200, 000 words.     1    

However, verbs are less complicated (复杂的) than other languages and there is only one form to speak to someone directly—“you”.

    2     There are different versions of English in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Most airlines and shipping companies use a simple form of English to make communication easier.     3     Eighty percent of the information on the Internet is in English. It’s the most popular language in Europe.     4    

About 25, 000 new words enter the English language every year. A lot of people use other social media. But what is e-commerce? It’s e-commerce on a mobile phone, of course!

What is the future of English as a global language?

    5     Many people think not. It is already too popular.

【推荐1】A Canadian addicted to Chinese ink wash painting

Canadian Brandon Collins-Green calls himself a Chinese culture “addict”. He has lived in China for over six years, spending his time in painting in the Chinese ink wash style and translating Chinese classics into English.

Collins-Green, 37, is a doctoral candidate in classical Chinese literature at Jiangxi Normal University in Nanchang. About 15 years ago, his first encounter with a stage adaption of the classic Chinese novel The Dream of the Red Chamber in Singapore inspired him to study Chinese in the following years. Learning Chinese as a second language, Collins-Green found it was not easy to understand a novel written in Chinese. “Besides the stories, I am interested in the poems, dialogues and lantern riddles in the book,” he said, “Because of The Dream of the Red Chamber, I wanted to get a closer look at China.”

His strong curiosity about China and Chinese culture prompted Collins-Green to travel to the city of Nanchang in 2015, in the hope of learning what the real China was like. During a visit to Badashanren Memorial Hall in Nanchang, where paintings of a famous Chinese artist were on exhibition, Collins-Green was interested in how a tiny brush could depict (描画) the curves of hills, shade and light on paper.

In his years spent translating The Dream of the Red Chamber into English, he has gradually found his way of combining Chinese and foreign cultures into his paintings, writing poems in English as the backdrops of his figures. As of this year, Collins-Green has completed over 2,500 works, including translations of The Dream of the Red Chamber, landscape paintings and portraits.

He lives a life greatly influenced by The Dream of the Red Chamber, renting a loft of about 9 square meters beside his university as a studio. Since this March, his paintings have been exhibited at art festivals in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Xi’an, bringing him a group of fans. Some have sent him emails, asking about the meanings of the poems in his paintings.

“We can see from Collins-Green that traditional Chinese culture is becoming more attractive to people in other countries,” said Li Shunchen, Collins-Green’s mentor at Jiangxi Normal University. “I really recommend that more people come to China to see how fast it is changing and to enjoy the charm of its culture,” Collins-Green said.

【推荐2】There were smiling children all the way.Clearly they knew at what time the train passed their homes and they made it their business to stand along the railway,wave to complete strangers and cheer them up as they rushed towards Penang.Often whole families stood outside their homes and waved and smiled as if those on the trains were their favorite relatives.This is the simple village people of Malaysia.I was moved.

I had always traveled to Malaysia by plane or car,so this was the first time I was on a train.I did not particularly relish the long train journey and had brought along a dozen magazines to read and reread.I looked about the train.There was not one familiar face.I sighed and sat down to read my Economics.

It was not long before the train was across the Causeway and in Malaysia.Johore Baru was just another city like Singapore,so I was tired of looking at the crowds of people as they hurried past.As we went beyond the city,I watched the straight rows of rubber trees and miles and miles of green.Then the first village came into sight.Immediately I came alive;I decided to wave back.

From then on my journey became interesting.I threw my magazines into the waste basket and decided to join in Malaysian life.Then everything came alive.The mountains seemed to speak to me.Even the trees were smiling.I stared at everything as if I was looking at it for the first time.

The day passed fast and I even forgot to have my lunch until I felt hungry.I looked at my watch and was surprised that it was 3:00 pm.Soon the train pulled up at Butterworth.I looked at the people all around me.They all looked beautiful.When my uncle arrived with a smile,I threw my arms around him to give him a warm hug (拥抱).I had never done this before.He seemed surprised and then his weather-beaten face warmed up with a huge smile.We walked arm in arm to his car.

I looked forward to the return journey.

【推荐3】In 1971, a young man who grew up very poor was traveling across the country, trying to make a new start for himself. Along the way he had completely run out of money and was forced to spend the night in his car. This continued until one morning, after a week of sleeping in his car, he walked nervously into a restaurant and ordered a big breakfast.

After eating his first good meal in weeks, he lied to the waiter, telling him he had lost his wallet. The waiter, who was also the owner, walked behind the chair where the young man had been sitting. He bent down, and came up with a $20 bill that looked as if it had fallen on the floor and said, “Son, you must have dropped this.” . The young man couldn’t believe his luck! He quickly paid for the breakfast, left a tip, bought gas with the change, and headed West.

On the way out of town, he began to understand what that fellow did. Maybe nobody dropped the money at all. “Maybe that fellow just knew I was in trouble and he helped me in a way that didn’t embarrass me. So I just made a promise to help other people if I can.”

Later, he worked very hard and became a rich man. Now, he lives near Kansas City. Each year he gives away thousands of dollars. He is known as the “Secret Santa” because at Christmas time each year, he personally hands money out to those on the street and at restaurants. Last year, he gave more than $50,000 away in Kansas City.

【推荐2】“I’m going to fail!” My best friend cried. She and I had this conversation almost every day while we were in high school.

The truth was that my friend never failed in any subjects. I just think that she can’t accept failures because she lives her life as a perfectionist (完美主义者). What she fails to understand is that a lot of good can come from failures. For example, failure can help build relationships. Once I was cooking dinner for a friend. I was tired, and several dishes I tried to make turned out bad. I grew more and more upset until my friend told me that I shouldn’t worry. She cared more about our friendship than the dishes. That day, I learned that failure doesn’t always make people dislike you. In fact, after she said those words to me, I grew closer to her.

Failure can make success ever more exciting. Every few years, there would be an important test in the PE class at our school. Students had to run a mile within eight minutes. I was never good at running , so I failed every time until the third year at school. Then I began working out regularly, and yet I still failed that year. A few days later, however, the teacher gave me another chance to run and I got a pass finally! You can’t imagine how excited I was.

I felt the memory of the success was as sweet as honey, because I had to overcome failure to reach it. Now it’s clear to see that failure can teach us good lessons. It’s not an end — it can be a beginning.