Mandarin enjoys greater status in France

After an exhausting 10-hour flight and nine-hour train ride, Chang Chunjiao, a college graduate from China, finally arrives in Tarbes, southwestern France. She will work as a volunteer Mandarin teacher there for a year.

Chang, 23, is among a recent batch of volunteers sent by the Chinese Ministry of Education who are ready to go to 40 French cities and towns to teach Mandarin in schools.

Some of her peers will work and live in big cities such as Paris and Lyon, and others will go to places such as Tarbes, with a population of 100,000, near the border with Spain.