Job Discussion Forums

[ChinaMovieMagic]

Here in China we're thinking about bringing a group of Chinese to Europe via the Siberian Express train...then to Spain. We're wondering:

*if there are any English schools in which there are some/many Chinese students?
*about the possibility of developing our own English/Spanish school, with Spanish partners, for Chinese and others
* about the anti-Chinese merchant burning recently...whether that is a sign of general anti-Chinese sentiment, or whether it's specifically focused upon the merchants
*whether BELOW accurately describes the Chinese communities in Madrid and Barcelona

Thanks
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http://www.answers.com/topic/chinatowns-in-europe

>>The most important example of a Spanish Chinatown is the Lavapi�s neighbourhood in Madrid, inhabited by mixed immigrants and Bohemian Spaniards. Barcelona, however, has had an area named Barrio Chino since the 1920s, in the old city between the Ramblas and the Parallel. The residents have been poor Spaniards and the area is marked by its prostitution, to the extent that any prostitution district of any Spanish city may be known as barrio chino, regardless of any Chinese presence, though the term doesn't imply a population of Chinese residents. The term came from an article whose author compared the state of the area with the popular image of foreign Chinatowns.

After the Spanish Miracle, Spain started receiving more Chinese immigrants, some of whom may have settled in the cheap Barrio Chino. As a result of the gentrification policy exemplified by the 1992 Olympic Games, the areas is being rebuilt as a chic neighbourhood and the more neutral name of El Raval is preferred. Recent Chinese immigrants have established wholesale clothes business at La Ribera, Ronda San Pedro or Trafalgar street. Barrios Chinos are also pan-Asian areas. Many Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Thais settled Barrio Chino. <<

[foss]

There is an ever stronger Chinese presence all over Madrid and they are diversifying their businesses - before it was only restaurants, one-euro shops and CD piracy. Now, they moving more into clothing and other traditional Spanish industries.

In class I've taught scores of South Americans, a few Moroccans, but only one Chinese student in my 7 years here. Many Chinese adults here need to speak better Spanish but, as far as I know, learn on the job rather than spend through the nose to take academy classes.

The President of the Madrid region recently visited China to promote, amongst other things, Spanish tourism, so there could be a demand for trilingual people in the future, though whether this demand will be served by academies here is another question.