Celebrating 10 years of Confucius Institute

Pamela Yang, a 16 year old a junior, participates in the Chinese language class at Chaparral High School in Parker, Colorado, April 6, 2006. [Photo/IC]

The last 10 years has been ten years of rapid growth for Confucius Institutes. Standing at a new threshold, Confucius Institutes should insist on their right purpose, keep refining the operating mechanism, trying to improve the performance level and making even greater contribution for the international education of Chinese language and Sino-foreign friendly relationship.

To keep Chinese language education as its priority. Chinese language education is the foundation for Confucius Institutes. Interests from overseas Institutions for the opening of Confucius Institutes comes from the need and passion for learning Chinese by the public. Therefore, Confucius Institutes must insist on the basic functions of Chinese language education. Otherwise, Confucius Institutes will become water of no source and trees of no roots.

To insisting on the model of “Sino-foreign partnership with overseas institutions playing major role”. We need to give full play to overseas institutions’ major role and initiative in the running of Confucius Institutes, and fully respect their opinions and initiatives, respect the local conditions, and respect the cultural differences. Only by doing so can we stimulate to the full extent all parties’ willingness to run Confucius Institutes well.

To further promote the localization of Confucius Institutes. We need to strengthen the professional development of local teachers and facilitate the development of localized teaching materials, integrating Chinese language teaching and local culture in order to reflect cultural diversity. Efforts should be made to enhance the theoretical study in cross-cultural communication, laying theoretical foundation for the localized development of Confucius Institutes.

To build up the quality and intrinsic development of Confucius Institutes. Teachers’ quality should be improved to ensure the quality of Confucius Institute teaching. Training of local teachers should be strengthened, more overseas Chinese and Chinese students studying abroad should be invited to join the team of Confucius Institute teachers and fully leverage on their bilingual advantages. New high-quality teaching materials and cultural reading materials should be developed constantly to form a more complete set of teaching resources. More efforts should be made to strengthen on-line teaching resource sharing, so that learners can have access to them anytime, anywhere and in any convenient manner.