The 10th Central and Eastern European Chinese teacher training course of ELTE finished with great success.

2022. November 18.

At the opening ceremony of the Chinese training course, Rector of Eötvös Loránd University Dr László Borhy gave the first speech. During the ceremony, Deputy State Secretary for Higher Education Dr Balázs Hankó, Educational Counsellor of the People’s Republic of China’s Embassy in Hungary Chen Kun, and former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentionary of Hungary to China Cecilia Szilas all gave welcome speeches. Director General for the Center of Language Education and Cooperation of China Dr Ma Jianfei, Vice Rector of the ELTE and Director of the Confucius Institute of ELTE Prof Dr Imre Hamar, and Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute Dr Li Denggui also gave speeches during the opening ceremony.

The training course started with an impressive opening ceremony as the students of the Zhejiang Music Conservatory gave a concert. More than 70 Chinese language teachers from 10 countries took part in ELTE’s three-day-long teaching programme, where they could develop their language teaching skills.

Rector of ELTE Prof Dr László Borhy spoke about the remarkable wide range of academic activities at the university, such as conferences, lectures, journals, volumes of studies, and training courses. He said that ELTE’s Central and Eastern European Teacher Training Course also has great importance, as it is a worthy example of prosperous cross-border cooperation. The rector also revealed that Chinese language teaching at ELTE will celebrate its 100-year anniversary next year.

Dr Balázs Hankó congratulated on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation. He emphasised it is remarkable that the university has been successfully running the Teacher Training Centre for 10 years with the support of the Chinese Ministry of Education and the Hungarian Government. He said the Teacher Training Centre creates a nice platform for the training of professionals, as it develops the competencies of Chinese language teachers at a professional level in the region. By developing the Chinese language skills of European experts, the relationships between China and these countries can develop more effectively. Therefore this project is very important for the Hungarian Government as

Counsellor for Education at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Hungary Chen Kun recalled in his speech that Hungary was one of the first European countries to establish diplomatic relations with China. Since then, the cooperation between the two countries both on educational and cultural levels has been outstanding. According to him, this centre brings the educational cooperation between China and Eastern European countries to a new level.

Szilas Cecília, a Kínai Népköztársaság Magyarországon akkreditált rendkívüli és meghatalmazott korábbi nagykövete

Director General of the Chinese Centre for Language Education and Cooperation Dr. Ma Jianfei said in his speech that ELTE’s Central and Eastern European Regional Teacher Training Centre is building a link between China and these European countries by teaching the Chinese language at a high level, thus developing cultural exchanges.

Vice Rector for International Affairs of ELTE and Director of the Central and Eastern European Regional Chinese Teacher Training Centre Prof Dr Imre Hamar said he felt fortunate that this unique centre could be established at ELTE thanks to the support of the Chinese and Hungarian Governments. There is no other Chinese Training Centre like it anywhere else in the world except in China. The establishment of the centre has great value to Chinese–Hungarian–Eastern European relations. The Chinese language as a bridge can open up interdisciplinary pathways between different countries and strengthen economic relations as well.

Finally, Chinese Director of ELTE Confucius Institute Dr. Li Denggui thanked the Chinese teachers of ELTE for their hard work and expressed his gratitude for the increasing number of participants joining the training centre every year. Finally he thanked the excellent organisation coordinated by Director of the Reginal Training Centre of ELTE Dr Ye Qiuyue.

Students from the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music currently pursuing their music studies at ELTE.

Dr Wang Weiqun, associate professor at the University of Nottingham, gave a very interesting lecture on ‘Corpus and International Chinese Language Teaching’. Director of the Confucius Institute of Université Paris Cité Dr Qi Chong gave two scientific presentations on linguistics: ‘Chinese Language Morphology’ and ‘Verbal and Non-verbal Communication in Interlanguage Communication’. After the lecture many teachers posed several questions, starting a lively conversation.

The organisers were very pleased that the teachers participating in the course shared their experiences during the lectures. Iryna Iliychuk, a Chinese language teacher teaching in Ukraine, even added a Chinese song to her presentation. She attended the training for the fourth time, and she was sure she would take part in it in the future. This year, 10 countries participated in the training: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Serbia, Spain, and Ukraine.

Exploring the integration of Chinese language teaching in China and international Chinese language teaching

Wang Fanfan: Chinese Language Teaching Suggestions for Native Hungarian Speakers

Wang Weiqung: Corpus and International Chinese Language Teaching

Liu Yu: 5C-Driven instructional Design

Agita Baltgave: Curriculum Design for University Chinese Education

Yu Chen: Artificial Intelligence in Chinese Language Teaching and Learning

Xu Xiaokai: Chinese Vocabulary Teaching

Lu Yin Yin: Instructional Design for Primary and Secondary School Students

Dr Qi Chong: Morphology of Chinese Language

Liu Daoyuan: Introducing Online Chinese Educational Resources

Iryna Iliychuk: Chinese Language Teaching in Cities In Western Ukraine

Xu Mengling: Methology For Developing Interactive Learning Material

Glendi Xhani: Methodology For Teaching Chinese Characters.

Sun Baifang: Sharing Experiences in Teaching Chinese Characters in Primary School Classes.

Chi Ying: Teaching Chinese Characters with Innovative Teaching Aids

The event ended with the presentations of training certificates and a fine dinner where the participants could share their experiences among each other.

Written by: Gájász Enikő

The photos were made by Szonja Macgill.