How Many People in China Can Speak English?

China began to learn English from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. After resuming the college entrance examination in 1997, it was determined that English was included in the university curriculum. In 2001, the English curriculum syllabus for primary schools was promulgated.
After the Second Opium War, the number of negotiations between the Qing court and the powers increased day by day, marking the beginning of a square face for English education. Under the influence of Peking University Tongwenguan, Shanghai Guang dialect hall and Guangzhou Tongwenguan have been established one after another, and English education has become important. More than 90% of China’s basic education (elementary school to high school) stage, especially the middle school stage, requires English as a compulsory course in foreign languages. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, China has implemented English level examinations in full-time general universities as a requirement for the selection of English as a compulsory course for the first foreign language. Mainland China from 1949 to the mid-1960s, due to the extremely close relationship with the Soviet Union, the foreign language mainly used Russian as the first foreign language. After the mid-1960s, English was chosen as the first foreign language. In 1978, especially after 1983, English (Foreign language) is treated in the same way as other subjects in the college entrance examination. After the reform and opening up, China has become increasingly connected to the world. As a tool for communicating with the world, English has gradually been recognized and accepted by people, and it has begun to spread throughout the country. Almost all colleges and universities offer English courses as a guide. China’s middle school courses, especially junior high school education, basically take English as a compulsory course for foreign language teaching courses, and more than 90% of high school courses are compulsory in English; unless English is a foreign language Majors, in full-time ordinary universities, generally take English as a required course, and other foreign languages ​​as optional courses.
English teaching in China focuses on listening, speaking, reading and writing, and strives to enable students to understand English from all aspects. But apart from English professionals, most people’s English level is only for reading. Speaking English is a shy thing for many people, and there are not many scenes in which English is used in daily life, so it is slowly becoming obsolete. People who are only engaged in English research, study, and translation use more English. But now, parents who were born in the 1980s and 1990s have been educating their children since they were very young (2 or 3 years old), using English as a second language and learning in synchronization with their mother tongue, Chinese .