Portuguese town makes Mandarin compulsory in schools

Mandarin looks ever-more likely to become a truly international language. About 500 years ago, Portuguese merchants were the first Europeans to establish maritime trade with China.

Now, a small town in northern Portugal is counting on its youth to secure a new foothold in the world's fastest-growing economy. Sao Joao, in Madeira is Portugal's shoe-making capital and it's just made Mandarin compulsory in schools.

It's a nursery rhyme many Portuguese children are familiar with but they're singing it in a language few here can understand. These children in the northeastern village of Sao Joao da Madeira have been learning Mandarin for two years now.

These 8 and 9 years olds are benefitting from a pilot project to improve trade links between the two nations. At an annual cost to local authorities of 40,000 euros, Dilma Nantes hopes the economic gains further down the line will be worthwhile. The initiative, supported by the ministry of education, is specially designed to ensure the future of the local shoe industry based in Sao Joao. With 21 million euros of exports to China in 2013 - a figure which has tripled in the past three years - local entrepreneurs are only too aware of the potential.

The next objective is to have Mandarin taught to students up to 18-years of age. But as the Chinese proverb goes: "Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself"