Karolina Koval, Fudan University (China), Institute of ethnology and anthropology of the Russian academy of sciences - special for infoBRICS

Interview with Emily Wang, CEO & founder of GoEast Mandarin (school of Chinese language, Shanghai) and Jaap Grolleman, marketing manager (& student) at GoEast Mandarin (https://goeastmandarin.com)

- Could you tell us how you created GoEast and what this project is now?

- Believe it or not, in 2012 when GoEast started, Mandarin education wasn't very mature as an industry (and still you could make the argument that it isn't, even in 2022). Anyway, GoEast started with the goal of making learning Mandarin more accessible and enjoyable — with the best teachers in the world. One way we do that, is really train teachers and have the whole team work together. We started offline, but the focus on teacher quality actually has carried over to online teaching perfectly. GoEast isn't a massive company, but we're a lot bigger than we started. One change in recent years is that we added courses for children also.

- Today China's position in the international arena is stronger than ever, a number of researchers call the 21st century the century of China. For many countries of the world, China is one of the main not only economic, but already a political partner. In this regard, interest in China in Russia and around the world is growing every day. What opportunities does learning Chinese open up for a person?

- There are many types of learning Chinese, with different degrees of fluency. But even learning basic conversational Chinese will be useful if you live in China or will do business with Chinese companies. We see this mostly with people who are already experienced, in their late 20s or early 30s, and they come to China to work. But now there are also more and more young people who haven't finished university yet, who learn Chinese as a way to kickstart their career. Usually these go for full fluency.

- From January to May 2022, the trade turnover between China and the BRICS countries increased by 12.1% compared to the same period last year and amounted to 196 billion dollars. The trade turnover between China and the BRICS countries is growing at a faster pace compared to other countries. This suggests that there is an increasing need to learn Chinese in the BRICS countries. Could you tell us, please, how many of your students are people from the countries of the association? Has the demand for training increased recently?

- Yes, not only the interest but also the ability to purchase courses, because learning Chinese with a live teacher still has a higher price than learning from an app. But also the amount has increased. It's interesting to see now, because we also have some students in BRICS countries that study Mandarin not to use in China but to do business with Chinese companies from their home country.

- The Chinese language in the BRICS countries is in an active phase: specialized courses are opened, and scientific conferences and symposiums are held. However, a deeper interaction has not yet been noticed. What tools need to be implemented to attract language learning?

- For the vast majority of learners, the best way to learn is still to start with the basics. For us, the HSK courses provide a good foundation. They do get increasingly formal and 'written language' as you progress, but we still think everyone should still finish HSK 4 and HSK 5 at least, before moving into specialized courses. We have special Business Chinese courses that use case studies or reports as learning materials but also Spoken Courses that focus on more spoken language sentence structures while adding vocabulary. And of course, there are vocabulary and background knowledge you need for your special industry, but this is not the biggest challenge (when looking at the journey of learning a language).

- Teaching a foreign language means developing all the time. You need to have competencies and have certain knowledge, extensive experience, read a lot and know the psychology of people. Do you exchange your experience with foreign colleagues and how would such interaction among Chinese language schools help to promote the expansion and deepening of the BRICS partnership?

- We are in touch with many Chinese education partner companies, such as Hack Chinese, Ninchanese, Skritter, and Du Chinese. And mostly we're not even competitors; each app or school has its own special purpose, for instance, Hack Chinese is a fantastic tool for learning vocabulary, while Skritter focuses on characters — and in GoEast live lessons we focus on speaking, and making sentences. We try to grow together, and actually do a lot of events or videos together.

For example, we also have a partner school in Rio de Janeiro. They sent their students to our Shanghai campus for a few weeks of immersion courses to really advance their levels. Several of these students are working afterward in the field of China-Brazil relationships.

- How does the study of languages and other cultures, in your opinion, affect society and the world as a whole?

- Of course. When you study a country and you don't learn the language, you will always rely on second-hand knowledge from books or websites. If you speak Mandarin you will realize that maybe how other people explained the situation, is slightly different or more nuanced. And whether it's for business or friendship, language is the medium of communication. It's through language that we become closer.

- BRICS is without borders, especially now that we can communicate with each other, attend various courses and conferences, cooperate and even work online. How effective is online language learning?

- There are obviously still borders but with the internet they're — in some ways — easier to cross yeah. We have been teaching online since 2016, but it has exploded since the pandemic, and even in Shanghai some students prefer to take online classes so they don't have to come to the campus. Our technology has matured as well, and we are also doing more online outside of class, such as online community and events.

To be honest, when we started online teaching we were not sure if online learning would be as effective as in person. But by the end of 2019, with 3 years of data, we found out that with our "blended learning" method, the excellent rate is almost the same for offline students, with only 1% less.

- GoEast is not only about learning Chinese, but also about making new friends. Do you think your Chinese language school could unite BRICS people even online? After all, networking is very important nowadays.

- We're actually trying to facilitate this. Not necessarily with BRICS countries only, but with anyone who is involved with GoEast or learning Mandarin. We have, for instance, a Discord server for homework questions, chit-chat, and also online events such as movie viewings. Language isn't just academic study, it only has meaning if you use it to speak or read.

- The last question for all our interviewee: what is BRICS for you and who are you in it?

- We think to us, BRICS isn't just limited to the countries of the acronym but is representative of a bigger phenomenon of emerging economies outside of Europe and North America. And of course, China is part of that as well, part of a bigger web, a web that includes Mandarin as well. It's refreshing to see the spotlight increasingly on countries other than those of the European Union or the US. We get a more diverse and fairer world for it. This plays out on big economic and political lines, as well as individual stories as well as we've already made so many friendships with people from BRICS countries. We are a provider of Mandarin language to everyone.