A Study Of Chinese Language Spreading In Zimbabwe

China's economic rise has become one of the most significant phenomena on the international affairs(Zhang Chun 2014:5).In the recent years,China has become one of the global powers,China's influence on the global politics has led many countries to be interested in learning Chinese language and culture.The learning of Chinese language and culture has become a global trend and has been spreading very fast even in the most remote parts of the world.The Chinese government is in full support of the spreading of Chinese language and culture and has been supporting the learning teaching of Chinese language and culture,which have helped the process to develop very fast.Jeffrey Gill(2008)argues that,there is little doubt that China sees the promotion of Chinese language as one of its soft power tools,China sees the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language as an integral part of China's reform and opening up drive to enhance the friendship and mutual understanding as well as the economic,cultural cooperation and exchanges between China and other countries around the world.In regard to this,Chinese government has established Confucius Institutes around the world which are aimed at promoting and spreading Chinese language and culture,the first Confucius Institute was established in South Korea in the year 2004.According to the recent researches carried out in the year 2015,there are already 495 Confucius Institutes in 134 countries around the world and 1000 more Confucius Chinese language classes.Among-st these,Africa has 33 countries which have Confucius Institutes and Zimbabwe is one of the first countries to have a Confucius Institute in Africa.The University of Zimbabwe Confucius Institute was established in the year 2007.China and Zimbabwe have been friends for a very long time.According to Manyeruke C and Mhandara L(2011:87),China and Zimbabwe's relationship stretches back to 600 years ago during the Ming and Qing dynasties when Chinese businessmen used to visit Zimbabwe to do business with local Zimbabweans through barter trade.However China's contemporary interactions with Zimbabwe began with China's support of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle against colonialism and racial oppression when China helped the Zimbabwe African National Union(ZANU),one of the movements that fought for the liberation of Zimbabwe from the early 1960 s to the late 1970 s,and this was the foundation of the current China Zimbabwe relations(Taylor 1,2006:106).China and Zimbabwe shares a very good diplomatic relationship,which was established when Zimbabwe got its independence from the British colonial rule in the year 1980.Towards the end of the 20 th Century China started to expand its bussiness cooperation with Zimbabwe.In the year 2000 China established the Forum On China–Africa co-operation which was aimed at promoting Chinese involvement in Africa,this Forum is aimed at increasing the business opportunities and to expand the already existent friendship between China and Africa.In the year 2003,Zimbabwean government introduced the ‘look east policy' which allowed the East Asian countries to have the priorities in investing in Zimbabwe.Zimbabwean government allowed Chinese companies and other Asian countries including Malaysia,Singapore,Japan and other to have priority on investing opportunities.These developments and the increase of Chinese business in Zimbabwe gave birth to the need of learning Chinese language in Zimbabwe.Chinese big companies,including China's mobile giants like,Huawei,Oppo,Zte and many others established business centres in Zimbabwe.At the same time China increased its Tobacco trade with Zimbabwean manufacturers.All these developments led to the necessity of learning Chinese amonst Zimbabwean business people,and students so that they can understand how Chinese people do business and to understand the Chinese culture.Chinese language learning was formerly introduced in Zimbabwe at the University of Zimbabwe in the year 2007.University of Zimbabwe in co-operation with Renmin University of China established the Confucius Institute which is seen in Zimbabwe as the mother of all Chinese learning centres and the birth of Chinese language education in Zimbabwe,however the spreading of Chinese language in Zimbabwe is not very smooth,a lot of challenges are being faced daily by the students learning Chinese language as well as the teachers teaching Chinese language in Zimbabwe.This research focuses on finding out what are the main factors causing the delay and restriction of Chinese language spreading in Zimbabwe.Considering the political,economical and social relationship enjoyed between Zimbabwe and China and the basis on which Chinese language and culture was founded in Zimbabwe,what strategies can be used to promote Chinese language spreading in Zimbabwe? Has Zimbabwe ever published textbooks for learning Chinese,is Zimbabwe training local teachers to teach Chinese language.What's the way foward in the learning and teaching of Chinese language in Zimbabwe.Can we draw any positive outcome from the example given by Zimbabwe in the teaching and learning of Chinese language?The research used literature review,field survey,interviews and combined quantitative and qualitative analysis,in analyzing the spreading of Chinese language in Zimbabwe.This research is divided into 6 Chapters,the first chapter mainly focuses on the introduction,on how the research was done,its main agenda and purpose,research methods amost others,the second chapter discusses the literature review,the history of Chinese learning in Zimbabwe and its developments,the education system of Zimbabwe and many more.The third Chapter discusses the 3 main questions which are mainly at the centre of Chinese language spreading,which are the teacher,textbooks and teaching methods.Chapter 4,5,and 6 discusses the factors influencing the development of Chinese language in Zimbabwe,how the international community,especially the developing countries can benefit form this research.I addition,the researcher concluded by suggesting countermeasures that can be used to solve the problems arising in the learning and teaching of Chinese language in Zimbabwe.During the research the,researcher found that the spreading of Chinese language is not very far from being successful,the backbone of the Chinese language spreading,the support from the community the enthusiasism from the Chinese language learners and the involvement of the two governments in the spreading of the Chinese language are factors that cannot be ignored.The future of Chinese language learning is very promising,but still the lack of qualified teachers,the qualtity of learning materials and teaching methods amongst other issues are hindering the progress in the spreading of Chinese language and culture in Zimbabwe.To ensure that the spreading of Chinese language and culture is smooth,the researcer suggested some measures that can be beneficial to Zimbabwe and also for the international community who are learning and promoting the learning of Chinese language.