According to Saudi Arabia's "Arabiya" TV Station 2, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: "In order to strengthen the friendship and cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and China and deepen the strategic partnership in all aspects, it is agreed to include Chinese in relevant curricula of Saudi schools and universities at all stages of education." Saudi Arabia's Arab News said that the agreement was reached during the Crown Prince's visit to China with the aim of "promoting cultural diversity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and opening up a new educational vision for students of different educational stages". Saudi Arabia believes that "learning Chinese will become a bridge between the two countries and help to promote trade and cultural ties between the two nation peoples".
Saudi Arabia's Okaz said that Saudi schools and universities have all turned on the "green light" for setting up Chinese lessons. Soon, two ancient languages, Chinese and Arabic, will appear in Saudi schools at the same time.
At present, foreign language courses offered by Saudi schools are very limited. At various stages of education before the university, Saudi Arabia has no foreign language courses except English. Compared with many other Arab countries, Saudi Arabia is more conservative in this aspect-besides English, Egyptian high schools also offer students the choice of second foreign language courses such as French, Italian, Spanish and German. In the past two years, Saudi Arabia is making efforts to offer a variety of foreign language courses to improve the current situation of foreign language education. Arab News said that setting up Chinese classes would also help realize Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030" goals in the field of education.
Saudi Arabia has expressed different views on social media regarding the upcoming Chinese course. Some people worry that the pressure on students may increase due to the difficulty in learning Chinese. However, most people believe that in the future world, Chinese will be as popular and important as English, and Saudi Arabia's learning Chinese is the requirements of the times.
