China's Minister of Education Zhou Ji and ambassador to South
Korea Li Bin attended the opening ceremony of the first overseas
Confucius Institute on Sunday.
Zhou said the Confucius Institute is the first Chinese
government sponsored language school to open in a foreign country.
His administration will support the institute's operations to
promote Chinese language studies in South Korea, he stated.
South Korea is the largest source of overseas students in China
and vice versa.
Zhang Guoqiang, deputy director of National Office for Teaching
Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOCFL) -- the institute's primary
sponsor -- said that the opening of the school is part of the
effort to expand Chinese language studies in foreign countries.
In collaboration with foreign universities and educational
organizations, the NOCFL plans to open more Confucius Institute
branches around the world. Agreements have already been signed with
the United States, Sweden, Uzbekistan and South Africa.
Zhang noted that such institutes conform to international
trends, citing Germany's Goethe Institute, France's Alliance
Francaise and Spain's Instituto de Cervantes.
More than 30 million people around the world now are studying
Chinese, and the Ministry of Education predicts that the number
will reach 100 million in the next five years.
Some 2,300 universities in 85 countries offer Chinese language
courses.
The Confucius Institute does not offer courses in Confucian
thought.
(China Daily November 23, 2004)
