Learning another language will open the door to another culture and enhance your career opportunities in the increasingly global economy...The new language deepens your capacity to communicate and to understand the challenges of all cross-cultural relations.

While it does not glisten, Chinatown is increasingly becoming fashionable, with young Argentines. Some local libraries even offer free Mandarin language classes, financed with Chinese money, as part of the country's quiet "soft power" in the region.

With cultural diplomacy, the idea is to bring people together on an international scale in a more socio-cultural context, rather than on a diplomatic basis.

China’s Confucius Institutes around the world are about spreading appreciation for Chinese culture and language, not news about political fault lines in China. Since the Confucius Institute project started seven years ago, some 300 have opened around the globe – 21 in Africa.

More often than not, it is a perception that knowledge of Chinese will be a vital asset in tomorrow’s job market that is driving demand, he says.

About 750 foreign students from 73 countries received scholarships from the Indonesian government to study Indonesian culture, arts and language at universities across the country...the program, launched in 1974, was among Indonesia's cultural diplomacy programs aimed at promoting Indonesian cultures to the rest of the world.

As China's economy and exchanges with the world see rapid growth, there has been a sharp increase in the demand for Chinese learning...Committed to providing Chinese language and cultural teaching resources and services worldwide, the Confucius Institute goes all out in meeting the demands of foreign learners and contributing to the development of multiculturalism.

A petite blond Midwesterner, who is not Chinese and only began studying the language five years ago, became an iconic translator of American slang for pop-culture-hungry Chinese fans. The popularity of the show, called “OMG! Meiyu” and produced by Voice of America, has not escaped the notice of the agency’s executives, who recognize that hip and eccentric programming is vital to connecting with youths.