New Zealand PM encourages Mandarin learning  Chinese saucy divas. chinese Sensual starlets.

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(CNS) -- New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has expressed the hope that more students in his country will learn Mandarin, according to Chinanews.co.nz.

Key countered opinions that Mandarin can not be popularized due to an insufficient number of teachers, pointing out that there were 250,000 New Zealanders of Chinese ethnicity, a great many of whom spoke Chinese and many of them would teach on a part-time basis.

John Mckinnon, executive director of the Asia Foundation, delivered a speech in Mandarin at this year's Lantern Fair in Auckland. The former ambassador to China recalled the days during his term when few ambassadors were able to speak Mandarin.

According to an online survey by the NZ Herald, over 25 percent of the respondents hope the Maori language and other foreign languages will be included in the school curriculum as mandatory courses. However, the majority of the surveyed do not approve of mandatory language programs.