Home for Confucius Institutes opens today
Gu Jia
2006-07-07
PRINCIPALS from more than 80 Confucius Institutes and affiliated universities throughout the world gathered in Beijing yesterday to discuss the guidelines for the soon-to-be-opened headquarters, Beijing News reported.
The headquarters is scheduled to open today in Beijing, as a home for teaching Chinese as a foreign language and the spreading of Chinese culture.
Chen Zhili, Chinas state councilor, addressed yesterdays conference, in which education of Chinese culture and language was also discussed.
The cultural and applied values of Chinese language are growing as a result of more frequent exchanges between China and other countries, Chen said. More than 30 million people worldwide are learning Chinese.
On July 5, Britains University of Edinburgh, Germanys Dusseldorf University, Serbia and Montenegros University of Belgrade, Portugals University of Minho and Belarusan State University signed agreements with the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.
Meanwhile, Spains University of Granada has accepted a letter of intent from the office, which is in charge of promoting Chinese as a foreign language, according to another report from Xinhua.
The country initiated the set up of language promotional facilities overseas to help promote Chinese language education in 2002. From March 2004, China officially launched the name Confucius Institute for all Chinese language promotional institutions overseas.
In 2003, the office proposed the opening of 100 Confucius Institutes in the world within five years.
So far, 80 Confucius Institutes and Confucius classrooms have started construction in 36 countries and regions, the newspaper said.
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