Ms Wade-Brown and fellow student Jeremy Harding, General Manager Development and Foresight at the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency, have a weekly 7.30am lesson with teacher Chunxiao Lu in the Mayor’s Office at Wellington City Council.
Both have just passed their stage two language exam with nearly full marks and are now studying for stage three.
Ms Lu describes them as “very diligent” and was not surprised by their exam success.
China is of increasing importance to Wellington and the rest of New Zealand, says Ms Wade-Brown.
“We already have a number of Chinese students come here to secondary schools and tertiary institutions. We think there’s a lot of room to increase that. We also, as a small country, need to trade with the world and we do have a trade agreement with China that’s probably the most extensive and inclusive agreement. So for Wellington businesses, whether it’s software, whether it’s film co-production, whether it’s food exports from the wider Wellington region, there’s a lot of opportunity in China.”
Mr Harding agrees, saying he knows of more and more people having Mandarin lessons.
Wellington has two sister cities in China—Beijing and Xiamen—and Ms Wade-Brown has welcomed delegations from that country and led her own to it.
“It’s not that you would expect to reach necessarily a level where you can do trade negotiations in another language but it’s the commitment to learning enough to be able to say ‘hello’, to ask about the other people’s family, where they’ve studied, whether they’ve been to New Zealand. It puts people at ease if they feel you can speak a little Mandarin.
“Many, many people I meet from China can speak very good English and most of them can speak some English, and I feel it’s just not fair—if we’re expecting a reciprocal relationship then we should make an effort, too.”
Building New Zealand’s capability in the Asia-Pacific is a major focus of Victoria University. The Confucius Institute at Victoria opened in 2010 and is one of three Confucius Institutes at New Zealand universities and 500 around the world working to improve understanding of and familiarity with China, its language, culture and people.
Director Wen Powles, former New Zealand Consul General in Shanghai, says most of the Victoria Confucius Institute’s language teaching is done through the placement of native speaker resources in support of Chinese classes in tertiary institutions (including Victoria) and primary, intermediate and secondary schools throughout the lower North Island—more than 100 in total, with nearly 50 graduates from Chinese universities as language assistants.
But the Institute also provides specially tailored short courses for adults, including public servants at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
“If we have clients approach us from a government department or a particular field of expertise like lawyers or people working in the commerce sector, we are able to say to them, ‘Look, what do you want to use your language for?’ and then we could design a course for them.”
Ms Powles says relationships are highly valued by Chinese people.
“So if you as a foreigner approach a Chinese business person, a Chinese official or a Chinese friend, and have a little bit of their language, it doesn’t matter the language level is not excessively high. What it shows is you have taken the trouble to learn a little about their culture and their language and their traditions, and you are willing to make that extra effort in interacting with them.”
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