Luis García Montero, director of the Instituto Cervantes, recently visited China to sign several academic agreements with the superpower’s educational organizations of the Asian giant. In 2023, China was among the countries with the most DELE (Diplomas de Español) exam takers enrolled in the Cervantes network of the Instituto Cervantes with more than 5,500 examinees and had the best SIELE results.
The demand for Spanish is increasing, and it is now taught in high schools and universities. Since the opening of the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in Beijing in 2006 and of the Biblioteca Miguel de Cervantes in Shanghai, the number of Spanish students in China has grown to around 60,000.
In 2018, the Instituto Cervantes signed an agreement for the recognition of DELE as certification exams for Spanish knowledge in China and for their realization through the National Authority for Educational Examinations (NEEA), the government body that authorizes the administration of examinations in foreign languages throughout the country.
After visiting Beijing, García Montero traveled to Shanghai, where he met with the head of the CIIC (China International Intellectech Co., Ltd.) to sign an extension of the collaboration contract for 2024–2026 and an agreement with Spanish universities that will facilitate internships in the city of Shanghai for their Chinese students.
García Montero spoke at Shanghai University’s International Education Center conference, themed “Spanish, language for a new globalization,” during which he analyzed how the language can contribute to establishing more equitable relationships on the international stage as well as acting as a bridge between different societies.
More than 60,000 students of Spanish in China
Spanish is establishing itself as the second most in-demand foreign language in China, due in part to the important economic and cultural ties that the Chinese government maintains with the Spanish-speaking world.
Furthermore, in 2018, the growing weight of Spanish on the international scene led the Chinese authorities to allow it to be offered as the first foreign language in the school and university curriculum. According to the latest data, there are more than 60,000 Spanish students in the People’s Republic, 25,000 of them at the university, where, according to sources from China’s Ministry of Education, it is taught in more than a hundred faculties. There is also a significant growth in certifications (DELE and SIELE) in the country, mainly due to demand from students who wish to continue their studies in a Spanish-speaking country, or from those who are learning Spanish in the private sector and who require a diploma with global recognition.
Furthermore, with Spain being a stable trading partner of China, mastery of Spanish opens multiple opportunities in business, tourism, and education, not only with Spain but with the entire American continent.
