Why ITBP officers and jawans are learning 100 Mandarin sentences
By Anish Kumar | First Published Jun 29, 2022, 9:05 PM ISTThe Indo-Tibetan Police Force will complete the Chinese language (Mandarin) training for its jawans and officers by 2030, an official told Asianet Newsable on Wednesday.
The Indo-Tibetan Police Force will complete the Chinese language (Mandarin) training for its jawans and officers by 2030, an official told Asianet Newsable on Wednesday.
Deployed in the border areas, the ITBP troops guard the 3,488-km-long India-China border along with Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. A large part of the border is disputed. The troops are posted at 200 Border outposts located at altitudes ranging from 9,000-19,000 feet.
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The border guarding force, which has a strength of about 90,000 strong personnel, inducts 3,000 jawans and officers every year and all of them are undergoing a mandatory Mandarin language learning course.
On being asked about providing language training to all personnel, an ITBP official said that the troops are deployed on the border with China and there were some instances where misunderstandings happened due to language-related issues. Learning their language would help in finding solutions if any untoward incident takes place on ground zero.
Currently, the force has over 160 Mandarin language training masters. The officers are trained at its academy in Mussoorie while the inspector-level personnel are learning Mandarin at the Central Training College in Alwar.
As per the plan, the force has planned to make them familiar with 100 Mandarin sentences. Presently, they use Chinese expressions like 'Ni Hao', which means 'Namaskar', and 'Hui Ku', which means 'Go back'.
For new recruits, the cadets will have to undergo a basic capsule course and then a refresher course after every six months. The Chinese language learning was made compulsory in 2017 just after the Doklam standoff ended with the Chinese PLA. So far over 6000 ITBP personnel have learnt the language.
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