A few days ago, the Ministry of Education announced the 2017 edition of the 2020 revision of the general high school curriculum plan and the Chinese and other subject curriculum standards, further optimizing the curriculum structure.

First, retain the original study subjects, adjust the foreign language planning language, and add German, French and Spanish on the basis of English, Japanese and Russian. That is to say, German as a subject has officially entered the teaching planning of high school in our country.

Secondly, adjust the course categories to compulsory courses, optional compulsory courses and elective courses, and provide selective courses for students with different development directions on the premise of ensuring a common foundation.

Thirdly, the plan further clarifies the functional positioning of various courses, which is linked with the comprehensive reform of the college entrance examination. Among them, the compulsory courses are all subject to the full examination, and the optional compulsory courses are elective examinations. The elective courses are planned by the school according to the actual situation. Provide reference for college admissions admissions.

Finally, the plan reasonably determines the credit ratio of various courses. Under the condition that the total credits for graduation remain unchanged, the original compulsory course credits are reconstructed to consist of compulsory course credits and optional compulsory course credits, and elective course credits are appropriately increased. Guarantee the basic and take into account the optionality.

German has been planned for a long time in my country's high school curriculum. As early as 2017, the Ministry of Education released the general high school curriculum plan and 14 curriculum standards, adding three subjects: German, Spanish and French. On February 5 this year, the Ministry of Education released an article entitled "Announcement on the Compilation and Submission of Textbooks for German, French and Spanish in General Middle Schools", and started the compilation and submission of relevant textbooks.

When it comes to learning a foreign language, people's first reaction is only English. However, with the integration of the Belt and Road Initiative with overseas, many small languages ​​that are popular in trade with China have begun to enter the mainstream stage. The education sector has also recognized the importance of multilingualism and has incorporated the three most popular languages ​​into the curriculum.

It is the general trend to expand the language of ordinary high school education. Wang Zhan, chairman of the Working Committee of the Basic Education Curriculum and Textbook Expert Working Committee of the Ministry of Education, said that the choice of German, Spanish and French this time is also for the purpose of international communication. These languages ​​are all in the world. It is the most used language, covers a wide range, and is widely used in international occasions.

German is the official language of Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The number of people using German accounts for 3.01% of the world's population. In terms of the number of countries where it is used, German ranks sixth in the world. It is also one of the world's major languages ​​and the most widely used mother tongue in the European Union.

German usage in Europe

Even if it is just a second foreign language, there are nearly 177 million people who speak German in various languages ​​and learners of German, of which 95 million are native speakers, 12 million are second language users, and there are as many as 7 foreign language learners. It is one of the most frequently learned foreign languages ​​in the world.