"I think the importance of young New Zealanders to study Chinese is because China is now a very important partner of New Zealand," McKinnon said in a recent interview with Xinhua in Wellington.

"And because learning about another country, learning about its culture and background actually give young New Zealanders more opportunities for employment, more interesting jobs and more interesting future. So it is about understanding and also is about their prospects for employment and future," he said.

In New Zealand, the number of children learning Chinese has grown steadily in the past decade, at both primary and secondary level. But the language is offered only in a minority of schools.

McKinnon, a former ambassador to Beijing, learned Mandarin in the 1970s through a two-year intensive course in Hong Kong, and went straight to Beijing after that from 1978 to 1980. He went back as New Zealand ambassador to China in 2001.

Last week, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, during a visit to China, also urged New Zealand kids to learn Chinese. Key mentioned when he went to the Lantern Festival in Auckland in February, the Asia New Zealand Foundation's executive director John McKinnon had given the entire speech in Mandarin.

McKinnon, newly appointed executive director of the Asia New Zealand Foundation, said New Zealanders need to develop greater personal contacts with Asian cultures and communities in order to increase their understanding of a continent that is increasingly significant to their future.

"For the job of the Asian New Zealand Foundation, our most important job is to increase New Zealanders' understanding of Asia including China. So that it may be more effective and successful in Asia, including China." he said.

News from Xinhuanet