In Japan, there are almost 2 million people learning Chinese, and almost all of its universities have set up Chinese courses. Chinese is the second foreign language most spoken in the country after English.

In some less-developed Asian countries, Chinese is also making inroads. In 2004, China was Cambodia's largest investor. Now, some Cambodians see Chinese as useful as English. An applicant with "fluent Mandarin" on their resume will often be chosen ahead of other candidates in the job stakes.

To meet the demand of Chinese language learning abroad, the Chinese Government has formally sponsored a not-for-profit Chinese language academy, named the Confucius Institute. As one of the most regular channels for learning the language, there are now 124 Confucius Institutes around the world.

With an increasing number of transnational companies either setting up branches or doing business in China, the need for Westerners who can speak Chinese and understand Chinese culture is growing rapidly.

A Siemens spokesperson said that speaking Chinese is a big plus for job applicants, especially in the client service area. "If our employees can answer questions in the mother language of the clients, we will win their hearts," he said.

In many other areas, such as the investment service sector that sees a growing demand for foreign advisors who understand the Chinese and the global tourism sector, now in need of Chinese-speaking tour guides to keep pace with the increase in Chinese travelers abroad, the language is also an asset.

As a result, more and more foreign learners have sought to obtain a certificate on their command of the Chinese language before entering the job market. For example, when HSK, the official exam designed to test the Chinese proficiency of foreigners, was first held in January 2007 in Yantai, Shandong Province, over 30,000 foreigners sat for it.

Benefiting from language boom

This demand has meant that Chinese language textbooks and the publication industry as a whole have an enormous potential market.

Besides an increase in the number of books in Chinese oriented to foreign readers, copyright export business has been on the rise. The proportion of China’s book exports and imports has long been steady at a 10 to 1 ratio. But in recent years, the exports of copyright books published in China have been climbing, especially for Chinese language textbooks.

At the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2005, the copyright export agreements between the Chinese delegation and foreign buyers reached 615, with an export-import ratio of 1 to 1.43.

Sensing this business opportunity brought about by the desire to learn Chinese, foreign publishers are knocking on the door to find ways to cooperate with their Chinese counterparts on textbook publications.

In the agreement, I Speak Chinese would be a multilingual series of Chinese language textbooks. Besides the print publications, CIPG and Yale will also be engaged in developing multimedia language teaching products and online teaching programs.

I Speak Chinese is mainly oriented to foreign enthusiasts of the language, especially students in universities and middle schools, or those who have a need to learn Chinese for career or travel purposes.

The two sides plan to publish the Chinese and English versions of the set of textbooks first and, in the following two years, hope to unveil related multimedia products.

As the largest publishing institution in China catering for foreign readers, CIPG has vast experience in publishing multilingual print and electronic products. The copyright export volume of the group exceeded all others in the field in 2006.

I Speak Chinese is the second initiative between CIPG and Yale. A decade ago, the two jointly published a series of books on Chinese culture and civilization, which were presented by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Yale University as a gift when he visited the United States in April 2006.