China’s elite business programmes are increasingly international in their focus and have mostly escaped a clampdown on ‘western’ values, but there are tighter controls on EMBAs and there signs of more scrutiny
As a girl growing up in an English-speaking household in Singapore, Prema Gurunathan grudgingly studied Mandarin. Now a mother in west London, she is taking no chances with her own son.
When he turned one Ms Gurunathan insisted their household in Hammersmith speak Mandarin for half of each week. She recruited an au pair from east Asia (she prefers not to say exactly where, for fear of tipping off the competition). And last month, she and her husband enrolled the three-and-a-half year-old at Kensington Wade in London, Britain’s first primary school to offer full Mandarin immersion for its pupils.
“It’s intellectual, it’s cultural and it’s ‘future-proofing’, if you will,” said Ms Gurunathan, a self-confessed “tiger mom” and policy wonk, explaining her school choice. “And it’s fun.”
Sir Martin Sorrell, the Sinophile chief executive of the advertising conglomerate WPP, was at Kensington Wade on a recent evening, for a reception to celebrate the Chinese mid-autumn festival.
“Chinese and [computer] code — those are the two languages as far as I’m concerned!” Sir Martin declared, offering assurance to the gaggle of parents that the £17,000-a-year tuition they had shelled out for at the newly opened school was money well spent.
I’ve got enough evidence that if a child joins us at six months and stays until they are five, 50 hours a week, they will be orally fluent
A craze for Mandarin, largely confined to affluent families in London, seems at odds with Britain’s pastime of convincing others to learn its tongue. Still, it moved into full swing under the previous Conservative government when George Osborne, the then chancellor, offered primary schools £10m to introduce classes.
For those parents inclined to start their children early, there is Hatching Dragons, the UK’s first Mandarin-English nursery. It claims to “foster fluency” in both languages by age five, and has just opened a second London location with a third soon to follow.
“I’ve got enough evidence that if a child joins us at six months and stays until they are five, 50 hours a week, they will be orally fluent,” said Cennydd John, who founded Hatching Dragons in 2015, after the birth of his son. If you doubt him, says Mr John, go check his YouTube videos.
In the US, there are now a few hundred schools offering immersive Mandarin education, not only on the coasts but also in places like Kansas and Nebraska. This year’s National Chinese Language Conference drew more than 1,200 teachers and other attendees to Houston to compare notes.
“Chinese is the emerging language because China is emerging as a political and economic power,” said Antonella Sorace, a linguistics professor who founded the Bilingualism Matters centre at the University of Edinburgh. “It’s regarded as a good investment.”
Or, as Ms Gurunathan said: “A lot of Chinese people will be speaking brilliant English [in the future], but it gets you through the door.”
The brainchild of Professor Hugo de Burgh, a specialist in Chinese media, Kensington Wade has been years in the making — not least because of the challenge of finding property in west London.
It is named after Sir Thomas Wade, a 19th century British diplomat who produced one of the first English-Mandarin textbooks. Its inaugural class of 15 students arrived last month. Three were fluent Mandarin speakers while about half had no Mandarin. They were shepherded by parents from the US, South America, Russia, Europe and Great Britain.
“Highly intelligent business people who are either working with China or understand the importance of it, with high aspirations for their children,” is how Jo Wallace, Kensington Wade’s headteacher, describes them.
The school’s funding comes from a group of socially minded private investors, according to Prof de Burgh. The Chinese government has contributed nothing more than a few textbooks.
Early learning: Kensington Wade school, which comprises two classrooms — one entirely English and one Mandarin
Its two classrooms, in an existing academy, are unremarkable, with play kitchens, toys and early reading books. On closer inspection, it becomes apparent that one is entirely in English and the other in Mandarin. One teacher is British, the other Chinese. The children move between them and their corresponding worlds during the day. The hope is that by age 11, when they graduate — and presumably move on to a private prep school — they will be fluent in both.
Kensington Wade also aims to combine two teaching styles. It touts the renowned and highly disciplined “Shanghai model” of maths, in which students do not advance until the entire class has mastered a skill, with the creativity and critical thinking prized in a British education.
The school’s Sino-Anglo heritage is also evident in its new uniforms. The claret and gold togs feature Chinese tailoring and a distinctive griffon logo. Think: Harry Potter in Shanghai.
The benefits of bilingual education are alluring, including greater cultural empathy and cognitive flexibility. But it is a misconception that it makes children more intelligent, according to Prof Sorace, and the results are not guaranteed. “It’s not automatic and there are many, many factors that can affect whether these benefits come out,” she said.
One is the extent to which parents continue the language in the home (kudos to Ms Gurunathan). Another is the quality of teaching.
I went with the worry that these little kids were going to be confused, that they’d be stressed. And all I saw was children having a lovely time
Then there is the question of whether children view the language as being useful — the bane of Greek and Latin teachers. “The language has to be part of their everyday life,” Prof Sorace explained.
Part of the challenge for Ms Wallace, the former head of the junior school at Putney High, a highly regarded girls school, is to convince a discerning group of parents that Kensington Wade is not a leap into the unknown.
In April, she visited three schools in the San Francisco area that have been offering immersive English-Mandarin instruction, one for more than 30 years.
“
I went with the worry that these little kids were going to be confused, that they’d be stressed. And all I saw was children having a lovely time,” she recalled, although she acknowledged that some parents would have to “hold their nerve” in the early days.
Patrick Lee, a Cantonese speaker originally from Hong Kong, was not initially sold. Still, he and his Spanish wife signed up their twin three-year-olds and Mr Lee claimed to see a difference after just a few weeks, with the kids singing Mandarin songs at home. In any case, he added: “The concept of having two languages is normal to us.”
He was chatting with Ms Gurunathan’s monolingual husband, Michael Pritchett, who took the long view about Kensington Wade and its young pupils. “I guess the proof in the pudding will be in 20 years’ time,” he said.
George Osborne calls for Britain and China to 'stick together'
The Chancellor has urged closer ties between China and the UK, saying the countries should "stick together" despite fears of a slowdown in the world's second biggest economy
The Chancellor’s attempt to calm the nerves of investors comes as China is expected to struggle to meet growth targets this yearPhoto: Bloomberg
Chancellor George Osborne brushed aside fears over the Chinese economy as he called on Britain and China to “stick together” in a speech at the Shanghai Stock Exchange aimed at calming concerns over the Asian giant.
Worries have grown over the world’s second biggest economy, stemming from wild swings on the Shanghai bourse, which was described by Mr Osborne as the "epicentre of the volatility in financial markets".
But the Chancellor said he “deliberately” visited the stock exchange in China’s commercial hub to present his bold outline for partnership.
"Whatever the headlines, regardless of the challenges, we shouldn't be running away from China," he said.
George Osborne is on a trade mission in China Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA
"Through the ups and downs, let's stick together. Let’s stick together to grow our economies. Let’s stick together to make Britain China’s best partner in the West.
“Let’s stick together and create a golden decade for both of our countries.”
The Chancellor’s attempt to calm the nerves of investors comes as China is expected to struggle to meet its 7pc growth target for 2015.
The International Monetary Fund expects China to grow by 6.8pc this year, but could cut its forecasts further.
The Shanghai stock exchange's benchmark index has plummeted nearly 40pc since June, following a 150pc surge in the previous 12 months.
The Chancellor has announced a string of agreements which will bring the British and Chinese economies closer together, including exploring the possibility of linking the London and Shanghai stock markets.
He said he intends to build London into China’s “bridge” to Western markets.
The Chancellor will visit the remote western province of Xinjiang on Wednesday and then the south-western city of Chengdu following the Shanghai leg of his trip. He returns to the UK on Friday.
