Mongolian language talk of the town for teacher

Liu Hongyan, who has taught the Mongolian language to ethnic Mongolian students at middle schools in Beipiao, Liaoning province, for three decades, said she has witnessed drastic changes in attitudes toward learning the language among young people.

Liu, a deputy to the National People's Congress for six years, said that when she began teaching she had to go to every student's home and patiently persuade them to take the language lessons. Now, however, nearly all students of the ethnic group willingly attend the language classes, beginning at kindergarten.

The 50-year-old ethnic Mongolian attributed the change to people's rising self-confidence in their ethnicity, and national and local governments placing more emphasis on strengthening education for the country's ethnic groups in an effort to help them learn their own cultures and languages.

Liu said people of her parents' generation haven't spoken the Mongolian language since childhood in most places in Liaoning, where ethnic groups form only around 15 percent of the population.

"I often talk to students and parents about the importance of inheriting our ethnic language," said Liu, who used to teach at a junior middle school in the countryside.

When she first began teaching, Liu compiled textbooks, exercises and quizzes for the students, who generally had zero knowledge of the Mongolian language in kindergartens and primary schools.

Liu said that when she was transferred to a senior middle school in 2003, where around 10 percent of the 3,000 students were members of the ethnic Mongolian group, only one of the eight Mongolian language teachers actually spoke it as a native tongue.

But changes happened quickly as authorities began encouraging people of different ethnic groups to better understand their own cultures.

At least one teacher from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region who speaks the language as their mother tongue has been introduced to each of the city's schools that have students from the ethnic group.

"The teachers really make a difference, as students can learn more terms used in daily life," Liu said. "Moreover, the Mongolian language has appeared together with Mandarin on all road signs and at public facilities such as hospitals, schools and government departments in Beipiao to create a better environment for language learning."