The importance of learning Chinese was celebrated at the opening of the 11th annual National Chinese Language Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, the largest gathering of Chinese language education practitioners in North America.

The 1,200 officials, educators and Chinese language experts who attended the reception and banquet for the three-day event on Thursday heard from a number of speakers, including Utah Governor Gary Herbert, Utah Senator Howard A. Stephenson and John Holden, the CEO of US-China Strong Foundation and were entertained with a Sichuan face-change performance by local students.

The National Chinese Language Conference (NCLA) started in 2008 and has been held in Atlanta, Boston, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington. This year's meeting is centered on the theme "From Classroom to Careers," showing how a strong foundation in Chinese language can translate into academic and professional success. It is co-sponsored by the College Board, Asia Society and the Confucius Institute Headquarters.

During the conference, participants will break into groups led by speakers from all over the world to share new ideas and best practices in the fields of Chinese language teaching and learning, Chinese arts and culture, and US–China educational exchanges.

In his opening remarks on Thursday, Herbert said that 20 percent of American students who are learning Chinese live in Utah, and that "the most important distance in connecting with China is the last three feet when you meet eyeball to eyeball and speak to each other."

State National Education Coordinator Howard A. Stephenson said that it is necessary for American students to be bilingual "in order to compete and cooperate with China."

"Never in the history of the US has it been more important to communicate clearly with China," said Stephenson, a veteran Utah State Senator. "At this time we should be making every effort to increase access to Chinese language learning for all U.S. students."

Stephenson paid respect to local teachers' dedication and assistance from the Confucius Institute, saying the teachers provided by Han Ban are crucial to the success of immersion language programs in the state.

"I have complete confidence in Han Ban teachers and am impressed with how committed they are to teaching Utah's math and science curriculum with full fidelity," he said.

Zhao Guocheng, deputy chief executive of the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Han Ban) and executive deputy director-general of Han Ban, said Utah is a leading state in English-Chinese language immersion with more than 10,000 students now taking part in the program.

"Chinese language teaching has gained great momentum from the increasing demand across the US during the past decade," he said. "My colleagues and I are so happy and proud to be able to work together with communities across the US to increase access to learning Chinese language and culture."

Anthony Jackson, vice-president of the Center for Global Education at the New Yor-based Asia Society, a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational institution that focuses on connecting the people and institutions of Asia and the US, said that in the last 10 years there has been an increase of interest among students in the US to learn Chinese.

"We are just very excited about the fact that it has gone from the margin to the mainstream of American education," Jackson told China Daily, "although there's still a lot of opportunities still to be have, but there has been quite an increase, and I think it's going to be sustained overtime."

John Holden, the CEO of US-China Strong Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit that provides American youth the tools to enter a China-related career, said his organization is hosting a China Career Summit in the nation's capital in two weeks.

"It's nice to learn a foreign language, but if it's not useful, there's no return on investment, and I think it can be intellectually satisfying to know French, German, or Italian, or Japanese, or Chinese," said Holden, who also spoke at the opening ceremony, "but, if you are not using it, there is no pay back, so helping young people get jobs that use their Chinese is very important.

Liu Yinmeng in Los Angeles and Xinhua contributed to this story