Primary school students in Changsha, Hunan province have started to learn the Changsha dialect(方言) in an elective course 【小题1】 (new) offered by the school this semester.

More than 20 third-grade students from the Affiliated Primary School of Hunan Normal University have signed up 【小题2】 the course. A dozen language 【小题3】 (professor) at universities are teaching the course.

Apart from listening, speaking, reading and 【小题4】 (write), students will also gain knowledge about the culture behind the dialect, according to Luo Xinru, a Chinese language professor at Hunan Normal University and one of the teachers of the course.

The Ministry of Education 【小题5】 (start) the National Language Resource Protection Project in 2015 to protect its language resources. The country has established 【小题6】 largest language resource database in the world, according to the ministry.

“Dialect protection is the future trend and different dialects 【小题7】 carry diverse culture and value should not and will not disappear,” she said,

Dialect is a valuable language resource and should 【小题8】 (protect). “We do not expect all children 【小题9】 (take) the course to learn perfect Changsha dialect, 【小题10】 they should understand the importance of different dialects and perhaps be willing to div e into the research and protection of them as they grow older.”