The Opening Ceremony Of The First “Chinese Bridge” Online Winter Camp For 1,000 Students In GCC Countries Held
On February 15, the opening ceremony of the first “Chinese Bridge” online winter camp for GCC countries was successfully held at the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC). The event was attended and addressed by Hu Zhiping, Deputy Director-General of CLEC, Amna Alhammadi, Chargé d’affaires of the UAE Embassy in China, Yin Lijun, Chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Saudi Arabia, and Liu Li, President of Beijing Language and Culture University. More than 200 participants participated online and offline, including representatives from the embassies of GCC countries in China and Chinese embassies in GCC countries, and representatives of Chinese universities hosting the winter camp and students from GCC countries.
The “Chinese Bridge” online winter camp was sponsored by CLEC and hosted by Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Minzu University of China, Sun Yat-sen University, Shanghai University and Guilin University of Electronic Technology, attracting more than 1,000 Chinese language learners from six GCC countries. The online winter camp focuses on three aspects: language learning, distinguishing culture and contemporary China, divided into eight themes, aiming to guide GCC campers to have a comprehensive understanding of Chinese culture through interesting Chinese language classes “on the cloud”.
Hu noted that this winter camp is an important initiative to implement the initiative of President Xi Jinping’s in GCC Summit to “nurture new highlights in language and cultural cooperation” and to launch exchanges and cooperation with the six GCC countries in the field of Chinese language education. As a professional organization supporting the development of international Chinese language education, CLEC provides assistance to people learning Chinese around the world, including the GCC countries. He hopes that the students will not only learn Chinese language knowledge through this online winter camp, but also learn more about China, so that they can be the inheritors of traditional friendship and promoters of friendship and cooperation between China and GCC countries in the future, and contribute to the promotion of friendship and cooperation between the two sides.
Amna Alhammadi said that the UAE’s national leadership and the Ministry of Education have always attached great importance to Chinese language education and planned to achieve the goal of offering Chinese language courses in 200 primary and secondary schools in the UAE. 158 public schools have already offered Chinese language courses. The “Chinese Bridge” winter camp is a bridge and link for people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and GCC countries, and an important opportunity to develop language and cultural cooperation. In UAE, Chinese is called “the language of the future”. Through Chinese language education and cultural exchange between China and the UAE, we hope to cultivate more elite professionals with international vision and contribute to the sustainable development of the UAE.
Yin Lijun stressed that Saudi Arabia is one of the important members of the GCC countries, and in recent years under the joint concern and promotion of the leaders of China and Saudi Arabia, the two countries have been expanding exchanges and cooperation in various fields. The series of fruitful achievements in Chinese language education during the first GCC Summit marked a new level of Chinese language education in Saudi Arabia. The Chinese Embassy in Saudi Arabia will continue to support the development of Chinese language teaching in Saudi Arabia and hopes that the educational institutions of the two countries will continue to expand exchanges and practical cooperation and make positive contributions to the development of friendly relations between China, Saudi Arabia and GCC countries.
Liu Li said that Beijing Language and Culture University, as one of the host universities of the “Chinese Bridge” winter camp, will continue to take advantage of its professional strengths. With the themes of “Walking in Beijing, Understanding China” and “Traversing the Thousand-Year Silk Road, Exploring Cultural Imprints”, BLCU will tell students from GCC countries about China’s past and present from two perspectives: contemporary China and Chinese culture, and help them understand a more realistic, three-dimensional and comprehensive China. He hopes that the students will take the “Chinese Bridge” project as a starting point and become participants and builders of friendship and development between China and the GCC countries in the future.
As one of the members who wrote a letter to President Xi Jinping, “I was very excited and touched to get a reply from President Xi, who encouraged the students to take our efforts to learn Chinese,” said Abila, a Saudi university student and representative of the “Chinese Bridge” winter camp. “I look forward to studying for a master’s degree in China soon and experiencing Chinese culture for myself. I expect to become a Chinese language teacher in the future and help more Saudi students learn Chinese.”
After the launching ceremony, Deputy Director-General Hu had a discussion with representatives of the embassies of the GCC countries in China to exchange in-depth opinions on better cooperation in Chinese language education. The representatives of the embassies in China expressed their hope to strengthen communication and deepen cooperation with CLEC, and to advance the development of Chinese language education in their countries to a new level.
original source: http://www.chinese.cn/page/#/pcpage/article?id=1369&page=1
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