Confucius Institutes go beyond borders

 

Since the founding of the first Confucius Institute in Seoul eight years ago, the development of these organizations has ballooned beyond all expectations, especially in developed countries.

According to Xu, the non-government organization is designed to teach foreigners Chinese and immerse them in oriental culture.

There are currently more than 400 Confucius Institutes in 108 countries and regions, and more than 500 Confucius Classrooms - with more than 600,000 registered students - across the globe, according to statistics released earlier this year.

In addition, 70 of the world's top 200 universities have opened their own Confucius Institutes.

"There are still more than 400 universities in 76 countries waiting on the candidate list for Confucius Institutes," she said.

Hanban is the international provider of teaching resources and services for Chinese language and culture.

Unlike other international education institutes, such as Alliance Francaise and the Goethe Institute, the Confucius Institute Headquarters closely cooperates with foreign universities and schools to improve their Mandarin teaching.

The universities and schools that would like to open Confucius Institutes have to meet certain requirements set by the headquarters, and submit applications.

Xu has looked beyond the explosion in the number of chain-store-like education institutes in the Western world and wants to optimize the layout of Confucius Institutes across the world.

"Although we do not open new Confucius Institutes on our own initiative, I would like to further increase the presence of Confucius Institutes in our neighboring countries as well as in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)," Xu said.

"The BRICS countries all have a big population. China's economic and political connection with them, and the neighboring countries, is getting closer, so we can focus more on these countries."