Initiative spurs language learning

A visitor learns Chinese tea culture at the Tea Culture College of Zhejiang A&F University in Lin'an, Zhejiang province. Chen Shengwei / for China Daily

Getting ready

BFSU is one of the first group of universities to take action. Its School of Asian and African Studies launched programs in the spring semester in Mongolian, Tamil, Bengalese and Filipino.

BFSU's new programs - 29 in Mongolian, 30 in Tamil, 22 in Bengalese, 24 in Filipino - are nondegree programs.

These languages - predominately used in Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and the Philippines - are all found along the regions of the Belt and Road Initiative.

"Since the new programs started, BFSU now covers all languages in ASEAN countries," said Sun Xiaomeng, dean of the School of Asian and African Studies, adding that the university is working toward offering degree programs in Mongolian and Filipino.

The School of Asian and African Studies, founded in 1961, provides 23 language programs; 16 degree programs and seven nondegree programs.

The curricula is carefully designed and has gone through thorough and repeated reviews by scholars, Sun said, adding that Mongolia is an important trading partner with China, but Chinese have less understanding of Mongolia than the other way around.

The university will gradually introduce another 11 less commonly taught languages, including Georgian, Armenian and Moldovan.

To nurture interdisciplinary talent, the school encourages students to take more than one language program.

"The ideal student should master at least one less commonly used language and one commonly used language ... we encourage them to learn a third and even fourth language," Sun said, adding that the school will provide similar optional language programs to expand students' choices.

"For instance, we are considering providing Tamil programs to students in a Sinhalese major. These two languages have high similarities, which should be easier for Sinhalese speakers to learn Tamil," Sun said.

In addition to providing more language programs, the university also encourages cross-major cooperation to nurture interdisciplinary talent.

Li, dean of the international relations school, and Niu Huayong, dean of the business school at BFSU, expressed willingness to cooperate with the School of Asian and African Studies.

"We could open curricula to all students, for instance, allowing students in international relations to learn a less commonly taught language and students from less commonly used language programs to learn international relations," Li said.

Beijing Language and Culture University will launch an English plus Turkish program in the fall, aiming to nurture students who can master those languages and also know French or Japanese as a third language.