German increasing in popularity in Reunion

This article in French tells us the number of German students in Réunion and indicates that this is an increase, but doesn't tell us an increase from what...since the number is now 13,000 it's probably up from a former number just below ten thousand or so, but we don't know what that is.

12% of high school students in Réunion choose to learn German, well behind English and Spanish. But there is a certain recovery for the German language in the country....there are 13,000 students in Réunion that learn German, an encouraging number for a département located 10,000 km from Europe. For a decade or so, teachers have tried to promote the language by multiplying partnerships and linguistic exchanges. These efforts are paying given that knowledge of German has become absolutely necessary in some areas. "There are more and more exchanges between both German and Reunionese companies. There are important projects being carried out and there are many German tourists coming here. They are happy when they come here to meet people that speak their language" said Frédérique Bonne, German teacher at Lycée Saint-Paul IV. But there is still some way to go: 14 schools still do not offer German as a language to learn.

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Number of students learning Chinese in Réunion: at least 1300

More numbers from an article here, this time in French and on the number of students learning Chinese in Réunion. No surprise that numbers are up compared to ten years ago:

For the 2011-2012 school year, nearly 1300 students have chosen Mandarin, compared to just 177 in the year 2000. To this figure, one must also add about 100 students at the University of Réunion, individual learners as well as preparatory classes.

A few paragraphs down we can see just how much support and aid is being given to students who elect to study Chinese:

From late March you can take your case to the Confucius Institute for a scholarship for linguistic study in China (from 4 weeks to 2 years), offered by the Chinese government. This course includes the cost to enter China, a monthly allocation of 1500 yuan ($240, 180€), as well as the cost of university tuition and housing. It is not mandatory to be a student of the institute when applying. For more information: http://confucius.univ-reunion.fr

A deal like that to learn a language as useful as Chinese is not bad at all.


Edit: might also be helpful to show the location of Réunion for those who know little about it.


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