David Cameron, who has notoriously poor schoolboy French, is urging today's youngsters to abandon the language of Molière and Voltaire to concentrate on the tongue of the future – Mandarin.
卡梅伦的法语水平相当一般已经是众所周知了，但他却呼吁英国年轻人放弃法语学习，集中精力学习“未来的语言” 汉语。

In a parting shot, as he left China after a three-day visit, the prime minister said that pupils should look beyond the traditional French and German lessons and instead focus on China.
在结束了为期三天的访华行程后，卡梅伦表示，英国的年轻人应该打破只关注法、德语学习的传统局限，今后应集中精力学习中文。

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To reinforce his message the prime minister quoted Nelson Mandela, who said learning someone else's language is the best way to their heart. Cameron said: "I want Britain linked up to the world's fast-growing economies. And that includes our young people learning the languages to seal tomorrow's business deals.
为了增强说服力，卡梅伦还引用了南非前总统曼德拉的名言：“要了解一个国度的精神，最好的方法就是学习他们的语言”。卡梅伦表示：“我希望英国能紧跟世界经济发展的脚步，其中之一就是让我们的年轻一代为了未来经济贸易发展学习语言。”

"By the time the children born today leave school, China is set to be the world's largest economy. So it's time to look beyond the traditional focus on French and German and get many more children learning Mandarin.
“等到这一代学生毕业的时候，中国很可能已经是世界最大的经济体了。所以现在是时候将注意力从传统的德、法语学习转向汉语学习了。”

Cameron, who visited a school for six- and seven-year-olds learning English in Chengdu, said that a partnership between the British Council and Hanban – the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language – will double the number of Chinese language assistants in the UK by 2016 and provide increased funding to lower the cost to schools of offering Mandarin as a language option.
中国一行中，卡梅伦访问了成都的龙江路小学。他表示，英国文化委员会和中国汉办（中国国家汉语国际推广领导小组办公室）将会继续合作伙伴关系，计划到2016年将英国的汉语助教人数提高一倍，并为开设汉语教学的英国学校提供资金支持以降低其办学成本。

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The announcement was welcomed by the British Council and the British Academy, both of which have been pushing for policies to reverse the decline in students taking modern languages at school and university level.
英国文化委员会和英国社会科学院非常赞同卡梅伦的上述声明，这两个组织也都在努力扭转英国大学和中学学生对现代语言学习逐渐丧失兴趣的局面。

Martin Davidson, the British Council's chief executive who has been visiting China with Cameron, said: "The promotion of Chinese language in the UK and the English language in China are both vital to economic and cultural relations between the two countries. This initiative will increase collaboration and is particularly significant given that recent British Council research shows that Mandarin is one of 10 languages not widely spoken in the UK and yet crucial to our future growth and prosperity."
同卡梅伦一起访华的英国文化委员会执行总裁马丁·戴维森表示：“同时推进中国的英语教学和英国的汉语教学，对于加强两国的经济文化联系是至关重要的。卡梅伦首相此次的倡议不仅会加强两国合作，对于英国本身也有重要意义。英国文化委员会的调查显示，在英国，汉语是普及率最低的10种语言之一，但汉语对于英国未来的繁荣发展无疑是十分重要的。”

The estimated 500,000 ethnic Chinese living in Britain make it the largest overseas Chinese population of any European country.
目前，约有50万华裔人士居住在英国，这一数字要高于欧洲其他国家。

Professor Dame Helen Wallace, the British Academy's foreign secretary, said her organisation had been arguing for an improvement in foreign language skills, and had identified Mandarin as one of the extended range of languages to be promoted in schools.
英国社会科学院外事发言人海伦·华莱士教授说：“一直以来，我们都十分赞成提高公民的外语水平，我们已把汉语列为各大学校应设立学科进行教学的语种之一。”

But a lack of qualified teachers could be a barrier to improving its popularity, Wallace said.
华莱士还补充说：“不过现在缺乏专业的汉语教师，这将会给普及汉语学习带来一定困难。”

And she warned: "No such strategy works unless you stick at it. There's no use doing this for two or three years and then forgetting about it – you have to make a long-term investment in this kind of change capacity."Laura Chan, one of the co-founders of the Marco Polo Academy, a bilingual Mandarin-English primary school opening in Barnet next September as part of the free schools programme, said the prime minister's announcement was good news for the status of Mandarin.
华莱士还提醒道：“任何计划只有坚持才能奏效。推广汉语学习也一样，只做个两三年然后置之不理是没有用的。改变目前的语言学习状况需要长期的努力。” 明年9月将有一所名为“马可波罗学院” 的中英双语小学在巴尼特成立，这所学校也是英国“免费学校”计划的项目之一。作为该校创始人之一的劳拉·陈认为，卡梅伦首相此次的呼吁对于提高汉语在英国的地位来说是一个好消息。

From September 2014, studying foreign languages will be compulsory in primary schools under the new national curriculum.
根据最新修订的英国国家课程大纲，从2014年9月起，外语学习将成为英国小学的必修科目。