First acquaintance with the Confucius Institute
I remember that year, in order to participate in the selection examination for the Chinese director of the Confucius Institute, I ended my visit to the University of Maryland in United States early. It was also there that I participated in several activities of the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland, and in the exchanges with Chinese and United States friends, I felt their love and interest in Chinese culture, which was my initial vague understanding of the Confucius Institute.
In order to prepare for the inauguration ceremony of the Confucius Institute, three volunteer teachers and I set off before the 2012 National Day holiday. None of us speak the local language – Hungary, and the locals rarely speak English. When buying daily necessities in the supermarket, we confirm the items to be bought with the help of Baidu Translate. In terms of transportation, we need to take a bus and then transfer to the tram from the dormitory to the Confucius Institute in the city. Therefore, my colleagues and I would always go out early in the morning, wait at the station, and dare not let up when we got on the bus, constantly looking around, and at the same time nervously listening to the station information on the bus, trying to identify the name of the station to get off the bus to prevent mistakes. This made us deeply appreciate the importance of language, and in order to facilitate subsequent communication, we began to learn Hungary. After some struggle, although it is still difficult to communicate in Hungary, it is enough to pay or buy what you want in shopping malls and wet markets.
In various attempts, we have conscientiously carried out various tasks for the construction of Confucius Institutes, including how to establish contact with the academic affairs system of local universities so that all teachers and students can obtain information about Chinese courses; how to establish links with local primary and secondary schools and how to provide Chinese courses; how to organize activities to let the local people know about the existence of Confucius Institutes; how to set up and conduct the HSK test; How to participate in the cultural activities of the University of Szeged and participate in the large-scale events of the city of Szeged...... From watching to participating, from unfamiliar to familiar, the circle of friends of the Confucius Institute has expanded. This is the secret to the success of our future large-scale events: in September 2014, the Confucius Institute organized an eight-hour performance and cultural event in the city center, which was a great success.
The Confucius Institute has more and more partners. Two years later, the Confucius Institute expanded its teaching sites to three cities outside of Szeged, including three in Budapest. We have also welcomed Chinese teachers and new volunteers, and how to establish an effective teaching management system and ensure the continuity and high-quality development of Chinese teaching has become a new topic.
In the process of solving one problem after another, it is as if we are in a race against time every day. Gradually, more students and visitors came to the Confucius Institute, more information about inviting the Confucius Institute to participate in the activities, and more and more participants in the Confucius Institute's activities, including elderly and children, deeply touched the staff of the Confucius Institute with their happy smiles and satisfaction, and everyone was busy and happy.
From one to ten
At the end of my term in October 2014, I returned to school with a sense of fulfillment. In the past two years, I didn't have the time to do my own research as I imagined, but building a new Confucius Institute from scratch was a rare experience, and it was a profound experience that was completely different from visiting a university.
In 2015, Shanghai Wai Chinese University has established seven Confucius Institutes, and the school has established a Confucius Institute Office. In this way, I connected with the Confucius Institute again and entered the work rhythm of the Confucius Institute again. As I got to know each Confucius Institute, my understanding of Confucius Institutes deepened and expanded. Each Confucius Institute has its own characteristics of Chinese teaching and cultural activities, each Confucius Institute has its own challenges and development paths, and the directors and teachers of each Confucius Institute are actively interacting with local students and people. At the same time, the Confucius Institute is also contributing to the discipline construction and talent training of the university, such as the addition of new languages - Hungary and Uzbek, the use of the Confucius Institute platform of domestic student groups to conduct fieldwork in countries with Confucius Institutes, the relevant departments and overseas Confucius Institutes take turns to hold various academic conferences, and various cooperation and exchanges between domestic and foreign universities are also deepening and broadening. The number of Confucius Institutes at the university soon grew from 7 to 10, and every year during the Global Confucius Institute Conference, a conference on the sustainable development of Confucius Institutes is held, where foreign university presidents, Chinese and foreign directors of Confucius Institutes and relevant experts from the university gather to discuss cooperation.
From ten to more
In June 2021, the China International Chinese Education Foundation signed a cooperation agreement with Wai Chinese University in Shanghai to jointly host the multilingual journal Confucius Institute, which was republished in the same year. In 2022, the editorial office of Confucius Institute was established. At the same time, under the guidance of the Foundation, the editorial department contacted the Confucius Institute, which originally hosted various language publications, and established a new cooperation model to better serve international Chinese teaching.
Under the guidance of many experts, the Confucius Institute currently has four main columns. "Cultural Window" mainly introduces the characteristic culture and intangible cultural heritage of various parts of China, and helps overseas readers understand the characteristics and living customs of various parts of China. "Contemporary China" aims to present the latest developments in different regions, covering different industries, while focusing on the preferences of young people or the current fashions and fashions, and telling the daily life of ordinary people; "Chinese Learning" focuses on the hot spots, key points and difficulties in the teaching of international Chinese, introduces new teaching concepts, teaching practices and sharing, Chinese learning strategies and skills, Chinese learning resources and HSK tests, etc. "Confucius Institute Links" tells the story of the Confucius Institute and its people, or what international students have seen and heard in China. While serving international Chinese education, Confucius Institute strives to tell the story of China's current occurrence and the life story of the Chinese people, and strives to present a real, three-dimensional and comprehensive China.
The editing process of the Confucius Institute's multilingual journal is complex, with many links and a long process, and it is divided into an editorial department and a translation and review department: the former is mainly responsible for planning, organizing and editing manuscripts, while the latter is responsible for translation, art design, typesetting and proofreading in various related languages. There are three main sources of journal manuscripts: freelance submission, domestic manuscripts, and overseas partner manuscripts. In addition, the particularity and complexity of the journal are also reflected in the various coordination, quality control and schedule control: how to ensure smooth communication with overseas partners, ensure that all links are on time and quality, in order to complete the task of editing 11 copies every February. The most difficult thing is that the readers of the journal are mainly overseas Chinese learners, and in the face of readers from so many different countries, how to screen the content and how to meet their needs for understanding Chinese culture and learning Chinese requires the editorial department to be highly sensitive in the planning stage. In addition, the writing of the manuscript should also be from the reader's perspective, highlighting the story, narrative and culture, and reflecting the style of everyone's small talk, which is a new discourse system for many people. This is easy to understand, but it is very difficult to operate. This also adds a lot of difficulties to the editing and processing of the manuscript, and the editor actively contacts the author to make revisions and adjustments. In terms of layout design, picture selection, etc., the editorial department is also actively trying and innovating.
When the first issue of the journal appeared at the 2023 World Chinese Conference, the old Confucius Institute people were as excited as if they had seen a long-lost friend, and the new Confucius Institute people felt that the journal was very exquisite, through the pictures, they could learn about the customs and characteristics of various places, get the latest local development and fashion information, and of course, food and tourism information. In the 2024 Beijing International Book Fair, journals published in three languages in 2023 were selected as "Excellent Journal Recommendation", further exerting the influence of the journals as an important part of the brand matrix of Confucius Institutes.
In the process of collecting wind in each issue, we are fortunate to come into contact with more Confucius Institutes distributed on five continents, and listen to the stories of more Confucius Institutes in China, who stage a picture of "harmony and difference" and "harmony and commonality" with their unique appearance and feelings: the Confucius Institute connects more people together, and the people-to-people exchanges and blends, no matter when and what the environment, it has always exuded the brilliance of humanity, which may be weak and sometimes strong, but they are all warm and popular.
The Confucius Institute is young
From 2004 to 2024, the Confucius Institute will be 20 years old in the blink of an eye. Looking back, I have had a relationship with the Confucius Institute for 12 years. Confucius Institutes have become a key word in my life, and a lot of my time, energy, and even research revolve around them. However, compared to many senior seniors at home and abroad, I am only an insignificant member of the global Confucius Institute family. In the past 20 years, it has been countless drops of water like me that have contributed to the development of the Confucius Institute. At present, with the unremitting efforts of many experts, scholars, and staff of Confucius Institutes at home and abroad who are dedicated to international Chinese education, the big family of Confucius Institutes is attracting more and more young and outstanding talents.
As the official official account of the Confucius Institute said every day, there are many things happening in Confucius Institutes around the world every day, and all kinds of joys, sorrows, ups and downs are staged. At the same time, every year, many students go to China to study or participate in summer camps and "Chinese Bridge" activities, and many visiting groups come to China every year, and many people become better themselves every day because they have gained more sense of achievement in teaching Chinese or learning Chinese.
It is precisely such people and activities that silently promote the mutual understanding, communication and blind date between China and the people of other countries. In the face of sincere smiling faces and hopes for a better future, I believe that there will be a moment when the trickle will flow into the sea. The Confucius Institute is young, and I believe that there will be a day.