Learning Chinese characters can be challenging for foreigners

I want to know how many people in Britain learn Chinese?   Lily, Fuzhou

Do you want to learn Chinese?

Thousands of people around the world are saying 'yes', and taking up the challenge of learning Chinese.

It is not an easy language to learn for many foreigners, whatever their mother language. The prospect of learning to read and write Chinese characters (汉字) is daunting, and the concept of 'tones' (声调) is alien to most beginners.

This isn't stopping an increasing number from attempting to learn the most commonly spoken language in the world. But how many people in Britain are learning Chinese?

Listen to Finn's report to find out the answer and then try our mini quiz.

Download and listen to Finn's report 点击此处下载录音材料

Download the script of this programme 点击此处下载文字材料

Test your knowledge with this quiz 点击此处做小测试

Do you have a question about Britain?
你有没有对英国的疑问？

Then email us at chinaelt@bbc.co.uk or

click here

欢迎你把问题通过电子邮件发给我们：chinaelt@bbc.co.uk

或点击此处