晚清上海外语培训班勃兴之缘由

On Development of Foreign Language Training Classes in Shanghai in the Late Qing Dynasty

1843年以后,作为通商口岸之一的上海成为中西文化碰撞、交融的前沿,中外交流日益增多,英语的商业价值逐步凸现,渐受重视,租界的设立使得中外交往成为必然,服务业、文化产业、公共事业等领域相继对人才提出了外语要求。此后,小刀会起义、太平天国战事的相继爆发,客观上又造就了一个五方杂处的移民社会,为"外语热"的兴起推波助澜,提供了良好的语言环境。随着英语人才成为各大洋行争相抢夺的对象,各种英语补习学校遂应运而生,大行于世,成为十里洋场的一道风景。从1862年第一个外语培训班诞生以来,晚清上海社会先后有200多家以外语教育为主的培训机构问世。

After 1843,as one of the trading port,Shanghai became the front of crash and interaction of Chinese and western culture. Gradually the commercial value of English emerged and was paid more and more attention to. The building of concession made communication between China and western world inevitably; while the uprising of small sword society and movement of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made shanghai be an immigrant society. Those who can speak and/or write English were quite welcome by foreign banks. Under such backgrounds,every kinds of English training classes emerged. From the first one in 1862,there were totally more than 200 training institutions of foreign language in the city during the Late Qing dynasty. The paper makes a discussion on some reasons of development of those training classes.