Gujaratis sniff biz, flock to learn Chinese after Xi visit

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit has put the spotlight on Gujarat and Gujaratis are thronging Chinese teaching institutes to explore business opportunities with the neighbouring country.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit has put the spotlight on Gujarat and Gujaratis are thronging Chinese teaching institutes to explore business opportunities with the neighbouring country.

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According to city-based teachers and students, more and more people, from businessmen, medical students to interior designers, are now looking to learn Chinese following Xi’s visit.

“There is an increasing trend among Gujaratis to learn Chinese. The trend emerged rapidly during the past two years after China and Gujarat began new business relations due to initiatives by former chief minister and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Lavanya Trivedi, a city-based teacher of Chinese language.

“There are more than 60 students who are learning Mandarin in various city-based institutes.” Since Chinese interior designers are in demand in Gujarat, it could be the reason behind interior designers from the state dealing with China, she added.

Another professional from Gujarat, Dharmesh Bhan, had a similar reason for learning Chinese as he deals with exports to China’s textile sector.

“There was a need to learn Chinese language Mandarin. I am an export manager and often visit China for business purpose as our firm exports textile blankets made of rubber to China, which has the biggest textile market in the world,” Bhan, who has been learning Mandarin in Ahmedabad’s Gujarat Vidyapith, said.

Asked if Gujarati students faced difficulties in learning Chinese, Trivedi said sentence construction patterns of the two languages are similar.