"I am paying close attention to China's development and I think it is a country with a lot of potential," says Elodie le Gal, a student at University Paris X and a contestant in the Chinese Bridge competition in France. "Being able to speak Chinese will help me find a good job, and I plan to pursue a career in China after I graduate."

While many students in France and elsewhere study Mandarin for economic reasons, some learn the language simply out of interest and pleasure.

"Interest is my best teacher," says Thibault Jourdain, a first-year college student who studies Chinese at the University of Artois in northern France. Even though he has learned the language for only seven months, he can already perform crosstalk and tell jokes in Chinese.

He became acquainted with China when he was 12, he says, when his mother handed him a copy of the Quotations of Chairman Mao Zedong. He wants to be a French teacher in China after he graduates, he says.

Hugo Mathe, a contestant from Aix-Marseille University, says he went to Henan province to learn martial arts when he was 20 and became interested in Chinese culture and language.

"I wasn't able to speak a word of Chinese but later I decided to learn it as I believe it will help me learn martial arts and Chinese culture. More importantly, learning Chinese brings me joy and happiness. It allows me to make new friends in China who I share similar views and values with. Being able to speak another language has broadened my mind and made me more positive about life."