Above: French teacher Carina Oliveri instructs Han Xianzhao, 72, to pronounce correctly. Below: More elderly people are taking free language classes so they can be confident when traveling abroad. Photos by Zou Hong / China Daily

A growing number of retired people are learning foreign tongues and are increasingly doing so for practical reasons. Zheng Xin reports.

While her neighbors are babysitting their grandchildren or strolling around parks with their caged birds, as many retired Chinese do, early retiree Feng Hong, who is in her 40s, is working on her uvular consonants.

She's practicing making sounds in the back of her throat to perform well at the French class she attends every Sunday afternoon in a public library in Beijing's Chaoyang district.

The lessons aren't just a way for her to enjoy her time after retirement. Many of her 20 elderly classmates also have practical considerations.

Feng is studying in the hope of visiting her cousin in France.

"You find yourself trapped and helpless when you're in a place where you don't understand the language," Feng says.

"It doesn't matter then how good your body language is. Being able to engage in simple conversations will be of great help overseas."

Her classmate, retiree Yang Shaoling, who is in her 50s, also plans to visit relatives in France.

"I'll at least be able to read signs rather than being totally lost when shopping or trying to get dinner," Yang says.

Mao Jing, a volunteer at what participants call "the capital's most senior French class", says more elderly people have been taking the free class she has taught for two years for pragmatic reasons, rather than as a hobby.

"The elderly feel more purpose in learning foreign languages than years ago, when 'foreign-language fever' erupted among retirees looking to kill time," says Mao, who is in her second year of graduate school as a French major at Beijing International Studies University.

"So, I mostly prepare lessons they might find useful when they're actually overseas, including content revealing local cultures and customs."

Her words are echoed by Li Jianjun, secretary and volunteer English teacher of Tuanjiehu Foreign Languages Association, a free English-learning club with some 50 seniors in a Chaoyang community.

"Some need to go abroad to take care of their grandsons, and some want to master a foreign language to better communicate with their blue-eyed son-in-law," he says.

"Besides some everyday expressions, we are adding lessons about the social etiquette, culture and customs of the Western world."

It was the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing that sparked the eruption of interest in foreign-language learning among seniors, Li explains.

"At that time, all the old people coming to our club - some are in their 70s and 80s - were studying to be able to engage in simple conversations, give directions, and greet foreigners who descended in droves on the city for the Games," Li says.

They would recite such phrases as, "turn right", "go straight", "how do you do?" and, "welcome to Beijing".

"Most were studying to contribute to the Games while enriching their post-retirement lives, as foreign-language learning is a novelty for the elderly," Li says.

"People are more motivated when they're learning for a purpose."

Li's club is one of more than 700 language-training institutions in the capital. The government has also developed various lectures to popularize foreign languages and cultures to encourage citizens to pick up another language.

According to the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program's organizing committee, more than 5.5 million people in the city - about 35 percent of the city's permanent residents - could understand another language by 2008. That's almost double 2002's figure.

Kajiya Yoichi, an international student from Japan, who studies at Tsinghua University and has lived in Beijing for years, says he finds life is more convenient because he can communicate with locals in English and sometimes even Japanese.

"It feels like home when a grandma waves and says 'o-ha-yo' in the morning," he says.

Li says the past few years have not only seen a growing number of students but also a richer mixture of languages, including French, Japanese, Spanish and German.

"But English remains No 1," he says.

Retiree Yao Lanyun - the youngest student in the English-training school in Xicheng district, at age 53 - says learning a foreign tongue is more useful than other pastimes, such as joining a local chorus.

"Many retired people I know are planning to take trips abroad set up by tourism agencies specially for the elderly," she says.

"It might be more fun if I know some of the local languages if I go. We elderly don't want to be left behind the times. The value of what you gain from knowing a few phrases sometimes can't be measured."

It's more difficult for older people to pick up foreign languages because the elderly often have poorer memories and are harder of hearing, 64-year-old French class monitor Yu Xingrang says. Yu started studying foreign languages before the Games.

Yu says he finds it more difficult as a senior citizen.

"It may take two years for me to memorize what young people learn in two months," Yu says.

"But time is exactly what we retirees have."

Mao, the volunteer French teacher, points out that it's not only difficult for students but also for teachers.

"Teaching seniors is so different from tutoring teenagers," she says.

"You have to repeat one word again and again, class after class."

French is perhaps particularly difficult for older Chinese, Yu explains.

"French is so different from Chinese," Yu says, during a class break.

"Some of it sounds like spitting."

But study becomes easier upon realizing the life benefits, Yu says.

"The oldest student in our French class is 72," Yu says.

"While mastering the language helps some of our students have easier times abroad or enjoy a fun hobby, it serves him more as a way to fend of senility."

Mao says that despite the challenges, the classes are worth the effort.

"It's more than satisfying to see all the grandmas and grandpas greeting me with 'bonjour (hello)' at the beginning of the class and 'merci (thanks)' at the end," Mao says.

Contact the writer at zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn.