Moscow pensioners love learning Chinese as a way to extend their lives

[Liu Yupeng by Global Times]In recent years, with the further improvement of relations between China and Russia, more and more Russian people are learning Chinese. Some Russian experts estimate that the number is now between 60,000 and 80,000, as the Russian people show increasing interest in China's culture, history and business contacts. Not only that, many retirees in Moscow are learning Chinese as a way to extend their lives.

The number of retirees learning Chinese in Moscow has more than doubled in recent years, the city's labor and social protection department said, Sputnik News Agency reported Monday. Before the outbreak, there were 29 full-time free Chinese classes for older people in Moscow, attracting more than 500 participants. After the outbreak, the program continued in a remote format, and the number of elderly Muscovites learning Chinese increased several times, to more than 1,600.

Learning Chinese can prolong your life, experts say. Ekaterina Vakhtina, a Chinese teacher with the Moscow Longevity program, said learning Chinese can help retirees effectively maintain their physical and mental health. "The myth that Chinese is hard to learn is being shattered," she says. Learning Chinese is not only a fun and exciting process, but also the road to a long life. Writing in hieroglyphs can help train the hand joints, the particularity of Chinese tones can have a positive effect on the hearing organ, and memorizing new words can enhance the cognitive function of the brain. When Chinese learners find familiar hieroglyphs in a large text or even understand some fragments, they will have indescribable emotions. Many of our online courses now include brochures about Beijing's various museums and parks, and students can write their own hieroglyphs and immerse themselves in Chinese culture." Chinese has become increasingly popular in Russia in recent years. A total of 440 high school students in 52 regions of Russia plan to sit the national exam in Chinese this year, the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao), the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Supervision said. Secondary school students will have the written test of a foreign language subject, including Chinese, on June 18, and the oral test on June 21 and 22. Moscow has the largest number of students, 169, who plan to take the Chinese-language test. Rossiya Gazeta reported earlier that with the development of Russia-China relations, residents of the two countries have shown increasing interest in learning Chinese and Russian. According to Moscow State University expert Valery Chastnykh, the number of Russians studying Chinese has increased more than tenfold this year, with most of them learning the language at university.Welcome to Beihaimandarin. There are more and more detailed Chinese courses on our website. Make everyone happy to learn Chinese together.