When do Chinese kids learn English?

Answer 1

In most Chinese primary schools English is introduced in the 3rd grade, however, there are some schools known as bilingual schools which start teaching English in the first grade (that is the extent to which they are bilingual). In many kindergartens English is also taught, however not in a systematic way. The official line is that English is taught systematically from the 3rd grade of primary school, with the exception of the bilingual schools. There are 55 minorities in China (the Han majority not included), of which many have their own language and therefore their own schools. At these schools Chinese is introduced in 3rd grade of primary school, and English is introduced in the 7th grade (i.e. the first grade of Middle school). However, there has been a recent tendency, most notably in Xinjiang, to promote bilingual Mandarin and ethnic minority language schooling, which would mean that ethnic minority would also be taught English from an earlier age. In some ethnic minority schools English is now also being taught from 3rd grade of primary school, as it is in Han schools.

English is among the most popular extra curricular classes that Chinese parents send their children to on weekday evenings and weekends, as well as holiday periods. Other classes include maths, sciences and Chinese literature. Arts classes (music, calligraphy, painting, etc.) though also popular, do not receive the same amount of attention by parents as classes that can help their children to perform better in exams in schools and high school and university entrance exams. The extracurricular education industry in China is a multi-billion dollar a year industry.