Mandarin Chinese is the most-spoken first language in the world, with over 921 million speakers, and is the second most-spoken language when including language learners, totaling approximately 1.120 billion individuals (as per Ethnologue 24th Edition, 2021). The People’s Republic of China (PRC) boasts the second largest economy in the world by nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the largest economy according to Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) since 2014, with all signs pointing to its continued growth and importance. Chinese-related cultures and the literary tradition of Chinese characters date as far back as the second millennium B.C.E., both of which possess rich histories with important lessons for understanding China today. Mandarin Chinese is an official language of the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China (also known as Taiwan), and Singapore, as well as on of the six working languages of the United Nations.
A Mandarin Chinese pathway within the BA Modern Languages is available from September 2022 for ab initio beginners, to be paired with the study of another language (French, German, Russian, or Spanish) as part of a joint degree.
A new BA degree in Liberal Arts will begin accepting students beginning in the 2022-2023 academic year, which also includes an option for studying Mandarin. For more about this programme, click here.