On July 8, 2020 at 3 pm, the first "Say Hello" live lecture was broadcasted in both the UK and Shanghai. For many students it was the first time they had encountered Chinese.
The second lecture for Argentine students started a month later, on August 4, at 8 pm. The fluency and practicality of the overall lecture made it easy for students to understand and absorb. What is more, the charm and profundity of the Chinese language really impressed them. As such, the teachers' lectures were widely appreciated and recognized as highly beneficial.
The third session was attended by students from the Netherlands and Kuwait, who also participated in the "Say Hello" live lecture on Chinese culture. This was another breakthrough in the teachers' careers as students from multiple countries simultaneously participated in the same Chinese language lecture. During the lectures, students gained a fundamental understanding of the Chinese language, and their interest in cultural learning was further enhanced. Thanks to the cooperation of the faculty and the multimedia team, the lecture, which took place on August 17, was highly appreciated by students from both countries.
The fourth session was a Chinese language and culture seminar for Canada, starting on August 25. After the first three seminars, the international Chinese teachers were now more confident in teaching Chinese as a foreign language and culture. We believe that with such enthusiasm and vigor, the concept of "creating an innovative and peaceful world" will be promoted successfully, and as ambassadors tasked with disseminating such significant concepts, all of our teachers will work with redoubled confidence.
The fifth lecture was held on September 1, 2020 at 2 pm. This was a lecture for students of Jordanian and Bahraini nationalities. It was a great opportunity for students from all over the world to get to know these beautiful nations found on the west coast of the Persian Gulf. Aside from the more meaningful objective of learning Chinese, participants got to experience such a wonderful thing, killing two birds with one stone, as it were! This is the charm of international Chinese language teaching, for it allows global students to really get acquainted with the Chinese language and culture. Besides this, they can also broaden their horizons by learning languages and cultures from other parts of the world, which again speaks to the goal of "creating an innovative and peaceful world". In addition to pushing Chinese to go global, it is also a great way to promote cultural understanding and integration among countries around the world.
During the lecture, the teachers began by sharing the most basic Chinese language, such as greetings, self introductions, as well as explaining pinyin and introducing aspects of China. It is important to note that for international Chinese teachers, this is easy enough to understand, but for those who are unfamiliar with Chinese, this is exactly what students need to know right now. In this context, everything proceeded in an orderly manner, and the class dynamic remained harmonious throughout the lecture.
The fifth Chilean session was held on the evening of September 8, which opened the hearts and minds of the international ambassadors even more. Thanks to those online Chinese lessons, the international Chinese teachers have established a friendly and sincere relationship with the Chinese learners. This reminds us that the profession of an international Chinese language teacher is not only about teaching Chinese. Alongside language instruction, teachers are also shouldering the responsibility of leveraging Chinese as a tool to promote cooperation and develop mutually beneficial relations between countries. Accordingly, this is something that the international team of Chinese language teachers understood from the first day they decided to devote themselves to international Chinese education.
On September 15, at 3 pm, the students from Romania went online. Following delivery of this online course, IPA's international team of Chinese language teachers received many invitations for lectures from various countries.
On September 22, the students were Pakistani and Kenyan alumni. Intent on inspiring the enthusiasm of the classmates, teachers were particularly energetic. Although at times the students were a little reserved, and many female students did not show their faces due to ethnic taboos, the teachers were nevertheless deeply touched when listening to the audio of students reading materials prompted by the teachers’ broadcast from the computer.
On October 13, 2020 at 5 pm, a live lecture on Chinese language and culture for students from Senegal, Cameroon, Namibia and Portugal took place in a Zoom online classroom. Teachers mainly focused on sharing the basic composition of the Chinese language. Beginning with the fundamentals of the Chinese language, students were taught that Chinese learners begin with pinyin, the romanized version of Chinese pronunciation, and were taught some essential Chinese characters. Students learned that Chinese people use Chinese characters to read and
write down records, and that the Chinese civilization, that has existed for over 5,000 years, has been recorded using such Chinese characters.
On October 20 and 21, we taught students from Guinea, Angola, Colombia, and Trinidad and Tobago. This made us realize that the world is a big place, and there are still many corners for our international Chinese teachers to explore, to plant seeds of mutual understanding, and to build international friendship.
In 2020, we have conducted dozens of live Chinese language and culture lectures, and have delivered Chinese language and culture "trial lectures" to nearly 2,000 foreign students from more than 30 countries, which has yielded extremely fruitful results.