Popular Chinese Internet memes and current Chinese terms like “Let’s go, mantis shrimp!”, “WeChat red packet”, and “cashless payment” are being added to Chinese language textbooks across India, as Indian teachers try to update learning materials to meet the mounting enthusiasm for learning Chinese, xinhuanet.com reported on Dec. 21, 2018.

　　“皮皮虾，我们走”“微信红包”“无现金支付”等等这些风靡中国的这些互联网现象以及网络流行语正成为印度汉语教科书的内容。据新华社12月21日报道，印度的教师正努力学习这些内容，以满足持续升温的汉语学习热情。

　　Statistics from the Chinese Embassy in India show that Chinese language is currently taught in 20 Indian universities, eight of which offer Chinese as a major. Around 2,000 Indian students are majoring in Chinese in India, while the number of Chinese language learners across the whole country has reached nearly 20,000 people.

　　据中国驻印度大使馆统计，目前印度有20所大学开设中文专业，其中8所大学开设中文专业，大约有2000名印度学生主修中文，而全国范围内学习中文的人数已接近2万人。

　　“From the Confucius Institute’s undergraduate courses and weekend classes for Chinese language lovers to Chinese classes in commercial training schools, people are showing greater passion for learning the Chinese language,” said an Indian teacher, Mei Li (Chinese name), who teaches Chinese in the Confucius Institute at the University of Mumbai.

　　在孟买大学孔子学院教中文的印度教师美丽(中文名字)说，“从孔子学院的中文本科班，到周末兴趣班，以及社会上开办的一些商业培训班，人们学习汉语的热情越来越高”。

　　“In the past, we didn’t have enough students, but now our challenge is that the textbooks are not fresh enough, so I decided to compile a new textbook on Chinese language,” said Mei Li, who disclosed that she had incorporated many hot topics on China’s social development and popular Internet culture in the book.

　　“以前是学生不多，但现在我们面临的挑战是教材内容不够新，因此，我决定自己编一本教材。” 美丽表示，在新编的教科书里，她选择了很多中国社会发展中的热点话题，以及流行的互联网文化现象。

　　Mei Li is not the only person in India who has compiled a Chinese textbook to help people better learn Chinese and understand China. A young man, Chinese name Tang Hanming, has also created learning materials in Hindi and Indian dialects to enable Chinese language lovers who don’t understand English to learn Chinese more conveniently.

　　美丽并不是印度唯一一个编写中文教科书帮助人们更好地学习汉语、了解中国的人。一位中文名叫唐汉明的年轻人还用印地语和印度方言制作了学习资料，让那些不懂英语的汉语爱好者更方便地学习汉语。

　　Tang was taught Chinese in China, and now works in a Chinese-funded enterprise in Mumbai. In his spare time, he promotes Chinese language learning in the local area and runs a local Chinese language training school.

　　唐曾在中国学习汉语，目前在孟买一家中资企业工作，业余时间在当地推广汉语，并开办了一家汉语学习培训班。

　　“In India, people usually use the textbooks compiled by the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban), which are written in both Chinese and English. However, some learners don’t understand English, so we have to teach them in Hindi or even some local dialects,” explained Tang.

　　“通常，印度汉语教学用的都是中国孔子学院总部(汉办)的教科书，这也是汉语考级使用的标准教材，一般是中英文对照讲解，然而，一些汉语爱好者和学习者不会说英语，这样只能用印地语甚至一些方言讲解，我们就试着编了一些简易的印地语和印度方言汉语学习教材。”

　　Chinese is one of the working languages of the United Nations (UN) and is one of the most spoken languages in the world, explained a professor from the Center of Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He said that the rise of “Chinese fever” in India is the natural result of China’s growing economic and political influence around the world, and especially one of the consequences of the continually deepening people-to-people exchanges between China and India in recent years.

　　位于印度新德里的尼赫鲁大学中国与东南亚研究中心教授狄伯杰表示，汉语是联合国的工作语言之一，又是世界上使用人口最多的语言，随着中国经济和政治影响力的持续扩大，尤其是近年来中印两国经贸人文交流不断深入，印度人对汉语和中国的兴趣自然也呈现升温态势。