By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-09-16 05:46:58 | Updated at 2026-09-19 14:40:25
3 days ago
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Since the late 1970s, China has embraced teaching English as crucial to its efforts to open up to the rest of the world.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Tiffany May and Berry Wang
Published Sep 16, 2026, 01:30 PM
Updated Sep 16, 2026, 01:44 PM
HONG KONG – It started earlier in September when a math teacher in China posted a call on social media for the study of English to be made optional in schools across the country.
Children were frantically learning English even before they had mastered their native tongue, he said, adding that Chinese people should stop their “blind worship of foreign imports”.
