On the eve of International Chinese Language Day, the 25th CPFD Chinese Program for Foreign Diplomats was officially opened on April 15 at the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC). 119 diplomats from 42 countries, including Vietnam, Iran, Mali, Egypt, Portugal, Turkey and Venezuela, have registered for this session. Hu Zhiping, Deputy Director-General of CLEC, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech.
Hu said it was worth celebrating the resumption of the CPFD Chinese Program for Foreign Diplomats offline for the first time after three years. Language is an important tool for people to communicate with each other and an important carrier of cultures of all countries. Chinese language and character is one of the oldest in the world and an important cultural heritage of mankind. The United Nations has designated April 20 as “Chinese Language Day”, and the CLEC will hold a series of activities around the world for “International Chinese Language Day”, and it is very meaningful to start the Chinese Program for Foreign Diplomats at this time. As economy, trade, people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and various countries further develop, the demand for people to learn Chinese is growing, and it is important for diplomats to master the language of the country in which they are stationed. To help take full advantage of diplomats’ time, the CLEC has invited a team of excellent teachers from Beijing Language and Culture University and other universities to create exclusive courses tailored for diplomats, and diplomats will make full use of this valuable opportunity and work hard to improve Chinese proficiency level. It is hoped that everyone will enjoy learning Chinese and experiencing Chinese culture at the CLEC and have a satisfactory experience.
Reynaldo Pulido, Minister Counsellor of Venezuela, spoke as a representative of the participants. He said that he really started to know about the ancient language of Chinese after attending the CPFD class, and that the teachers and classmates were very friendly and the Chinese class was interesting. He will seize this rare learning opportunity to listen to more Chinese, write more Chinese characters and speak more sentences, and keep improving his Chinese to make his work and life in China easier. He also hopes to gain more and make more new friends in the offline learning process.
Yue Yan, the teaching director of the CPFD class and an associate professor at Beijing Language and Culture University, introduced the curriculum and its features. She said that the teaching team focuses on developing practical Chinese language courses for learners, and designs teaching contents and methods and develops teaching resources according to the learning characteristics and learning needs of the diplomats. She hopes that all participants will actively participate in learning Chinese and better adapt to work and life in China.
Ms. Sanju Dasanayake, First Secretary of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in China, wrote “国际中文日 (International Chinese Language Day)” with a calligraphy brush in Chinese to express her joy as a Chinese language learner for the upcoming fourth International Chinese Language Day.
Since the first CPFD class was opened in 2010, the Chinese Program for Foreign Diplomats has been held for 25 consecutive sessions, and has been widely welcomed by embassies and international organizations in Beijing, with more than 2,500 diplomats and their families from over 150 embassies and international organizations in China participating in the course and cultural activities.
original source: http://www.chinese.cn/page/#/pcpage/article?id=1391&page=1
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