Confucius Institute bridges global language barrier
There are now 536 Confucius Institutes and 1,139 Confucius Classrooms in 157 countries, providing educational opportunities to some 11 million students.
Language competition
Every year, more than 100,000 teenagers worldwide take part in the preliminary rounds and finals of the "Chinese Bridge" Language Competition. The institute also welcomes tens of thou-sands of education officials, school principals, teachers and students to China each year to experience Chinese culture.
Lee Hambee, 28, a student taking the Chinese translation and interpretation course at the Confucius Institute in Seoul, said she chose to study there because she believes she can receive more formal Chinese language training at the institute, as it is directly managed by the Confucius Institute Headquarters in China.
Lee lived in China for several years as her mother ran a business in the country, but did not formally start learning Chinese until she returned to the ROK. Now working in the entertainment industry, she hopes that mastering Chinese can lead to more career opportunities.
"CIS has helped me to find the right method to learn Chinese, and teachers here also give accurate guidelines for learning," Lee said.
Han Minhwa, Lee's teacher and head instructor at CIS, joined the institute in 2016. Han believes that practice is the key to learning a language. Every day, she gets up at 6 am and listens to Himalaya FM, one of the most popular podcast apps in China, before going to work.
"At first, I was just doing this to find teaching resources, but now it has become a habit," Han said.
CIS now has some 30 teachers, including part-timers. In addition to locals such as Han, about one-third of its instructors are Chinese sent by the Headquarters, who are also responsible for CIS training courses aimed at nurturing prospective Chinese-language teachers.
