An article entitled Exchange to improve Chinese teaching reports that “China and Britain have reached an understanding on increasing the number of exchanges of students and teachers over the next five years, as part of efforts to promote Chinese studies in British schools.”

According to the report, “French, German and Spanish are still the top three popular second languages in Britain, but Chinese is gaining popularity slowly because of its culture, history and rapid economic growth.”

Reported by China Daily on July 19th 2006, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) annual survey shows that China’s population of internet users has reached 123 million this year, marked by an increase of 20% compared to last year. Another news
report from Sohu reveals that 82.6% of internet users take the net as their primary source of information.

更新：BBC中文网8月11日发表一篇《英国学生认识中国增新途径》的文章，报道说：“英国三家学术机构内将开办‘孔子学院’，不单教授中文汉语，而且是‘介绍中国的窗口，并展示中国的文化’。”

开办“孔子学院”的三家院校分别为曼彻斯特大学（University of Manchester）、爱丁堡大学（University of Edinburgh）以及伦敦大学亚非学院（School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS）。

这篇报道还详细介绍了“孔子学院”的“来历”和模式：

其实，所谓“孔子学院”并非这三所院校自己单方发起的机构，而是按照中国当局大力推行的推广中国文化政策而设立的。

中国方面的资料显示，中国教育部和国家对外汉语教学领导小组早在2000年已经开始酝酿在海外设立语言推广机构，到2004年正式定名为“孔子学院”，以儒家圣哲孔子作为标记。

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