Motivations for Studying the Chinese Language in Kenya: A Case Study of USIU-Africa

Abstract

The current study sought to decipher the motivations of young persons to study the Chinese language. In particular, it endeavored to delineate the reasons why USIU-Africa undergraduate students opted for Chinese from a palette of other languages on offer. The latter include French, Spanish, Arabic, and Swahili.

The survey was conducted among 100 odd students who had enrolled for Chinese in spring 2022. An open-ended questionnaire used to elicit more perspectives on the main reasons why the youth are keen on learning Chinese at USIU. Descriptive and thematic analysis was done for both quantitative and qualitative data. Information was presented through charts, tables and verbatim expressions.  

Findings: Majority of the students at 76.4% were between the ages of 21 and 25 years. The sample size was balanced with equal number of male respondents to females. Majority at 61.8% were Kenyan. Overwhelming majority of students at 91.2% chose foreign language based on personal motivations, while only 2.9% were influenced by others. The motivation behind choosing Chinese language was mostly to do with the personal interests in learning and exploring Chinese language (20.6%), love for the Asian culture (20.6%), having Chinese friends (11.8%), and because of the booming Chinese economy (17.6%). Similarly, 52.9% of the students had not previously interacted with Chinese people before joining USIU. Further, 85.3% indicated that they were willing to work for any Chinese company in Kenya. It was also felt by 67.6% of the students that learning Chinese was not hard. Emerging challenges were tones and pronunciations and characters/strokes and writings.

Conclusion and recommendations: Students would want to Join Chinese language because of many motivating factors. Learning of the language is also influenced by the potential opportunities for business and interactions with Asian/Chinese people. It is recommended that lecturers can make learning of Chinese language easier through researching and trying new interactive modes of training.