On November 23, RUC and University of Costa Rica (UCR) jointly built University of Costa Rica Confucius Institute’s 2017 Remote Video Council, with University of Costa Rica’s Vice President Jimenez hosting, and RUC Vice President DU Peng in attendance.
VP Jimenez expressed that since 2007 when Costa Rica and China first built their friendship, both countries slowly strengthened their ties day by day, creating a platform for Confucius Institute Chinese language learning, culture activities, art, research, and other diverse aspects. Chinese language education and Chinese culture has already spread to all of Costa Rica. More and more students from Costa Rica and local citizens are getting interested in Chinese language and Chinese culture, many choosing to delve deeper into their Chinese language studies, with a few select students obtaining scholarships to RUC to study. Further, Confucius Institute has already become a very large part of UCR, where gaining support and encouraging Chinese language teaching, culture exchanges remains a very important goal for UCR.
DU Peng on behalf of RUC extended his thanks to University of Costa Rica for the wonderful support they’ve provided to the Confucius Institute, thanking the previous China Affairs President ZHANG Qingxu for his four years of work and for putting all of his heart into his work, while encouraging new China Affairs President LI Hua to take the reigns at Confucius Institute and lead other colleagues to seek breakthroughs. DU Peng pointed out that he hopes that this conference can allow both sides to discuss important issues that they may have on this platform, and expect that in the future both sides will focus on progress, building community, developing faster, and contributing more.
Confucius Institute Foreign Affairs President CHEN Liqian attended the 2017 Summit where the goal of the Chinese language teaching program was to improve Chinese language teaching through strengthening the Chinese language studies and practice. In these past nine years, Confucius Institute has provided Chinese language classes, registered more and more students every year, and organized increasingly more culture activities related to Chinese society, art, history, and philosophy, among many other disciplines. 2017 is RUC and Costa Rica’s 10-year anniversary, and each activity organized by Confucius Institute worked to promote cultural exchange between the two nations. Director of International Exchange ZHANG Xiaojing representing China Affairs spoke on behalf of RUC, expressed that UCR’s Confucius Institute was the first Confucius Institute in Central America that promoted Chinese language education and Chinese culture, strengthening ties between the two universities and promote cultural exchanges, already garnering great success. In the future, both sides hope to deepen and expand their research, enhance Chinese scholars’ understanding of Latin America, improve academic exchanges cooperation, to render Confucius Institute as a platform for academic exchanges between the two countries. RUC will continue to provide support to UCR’s Confucius Institute.
UCR International Affairs and International Cooperation Director, Plastic Arts Director, along with Director of International Exchange and Foreign Languages Vice President were all in attendance. UCR Foreign Affairs Director CHEN Liqian, newly appointed China Affairs President LI Hua, and former China Affairs Director ZHANG Qingxu as well as representatives from both sides were also in attendance.
