Foreign languages are Andreas Guder’s passion. The 56-year-old has been Professor of Chinese Didactics at the Free University of Berlin since 2019. He advocates Europeans to focus more on „distant foreign languages“ such as Chinese. Up to now, they have played only a minor role in the German education system. He believes it is a shame if we in Europe fail to bring non-European languages closer to children and students. „Conversely, there are many Asians who have also successfully mastered a difficult European language that is foreign to them,“ says Guder.