ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on the role of economic markets, such as business and tourism, in shaping language policies that promote an 'elite' form of multilingualism in Nepali private schools. He explores motivations for learning Chinese as an additional bonus to the learners' existing multilingual repertoires. The term elite multilingualism is used here to refer to the discourses and imaginations that language users and policy makers produce in order to talk about the material value of language skills and competences in the economic market. As the discourses reflect the value of multilingualism that the learners have deliberately worked for, at the same time they show an important space for dominant languages in school language policy. Among certain groups in Nepal, Chinese is emerging as another global language, alongside English, and has attracted Nepali schools and students for its immediate material value in business and travel.
