Chinese Language Day was Celebrated with a Conference Dedicated to the Language with the Most Native Speakers in the World
Chinese Language Day was Celebrated with a Conference Dedicated to the Language with the Most Native Speakers in the World
2023. April 13.
5 perc
This year, the Confucius Institute at the University of Szeged and the Eötvös József High School held a joint event on the occasion of the "Chinese Language Day". Experts gave interesting presentations and held professional discussions on current national and international trends in Chinese culture and language teaching.
Chinese is the most widely spoken language within the Sino-Tibetan language family. About 1.5 billion people speak Chinese as their native language. Mandarin Chinese is the official language in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Singapore, and it is also listed among the official languages of the UN.
Chinese Language Day is celebrated every year on the last day of school before the spring break. The main organizers of the event are the Confucius Institute and its partners.
Photo gallery of the the event. Photos by: Ádám Kovács Jerney
The conference took place at the ÁGOTA Cultural and Community Center on 5 April 2023. The participants were greeted by the hosts of the event, namely the representatives of the Confucius Institute and the Eötvös József High School.
In her speech, Prof.Dr. Márta Széll, the Vice-Rector for Strategic Planning of the University of Szeged, emphasized that the fundamental objective of the Confucius Institute at the University of Szeged is to promote Chinese language and culture and to organize language courses.
The Vice Rector emphasized that Chinese relationships and cooperation are important for the University of Szeged, therefore learning and promoting Chinese language and culture is essential. Photo by: Ádám Kovács-Jerney
- Our goal is to build relationships and find the shortest and most efficient way to connect with our Chinese partners. We warmly welcome Chinese students and academics who are thinking of coming to Europe. The Confucius Institute at the University of Szeged provides classrooms, teaching materials, courses and instructors for Chinese language teaching. We help students prepare for language exams. This semester, we are working with 10 Chinese instructors. Besides that, we organise programmes to promote Chinese culture, we maintain close ties with the Shanghai International Studies University and several Chinese partners and institutions. The Faculty of Engineering is currently working on an interesting research project with a Chinese sport university– explained Prof. Dr. Márta Széll, then, at the end of her speech, she thanked for the attention in Chinese, to the great delight of the audience.
The message of the Chinese Embassy was interpreted in Chinese by Rui Wang, the Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Szeged, and in Hungarian by Alexandra Zoltai, the Hungarian director of the Institute.
Alexandra Zoltai, one of the hosts and speakers of the event. Photo by: Ádám Kovács-Jerney
Chinese language education is currently booming in Hungary, and it greatly contributes to China's global expansion as well. Chinese President Xi Jinping personally wrote a reply letter in response to the students of the Hungarian-Chinese Bilingual Primary and Secondary School, in which he encouraged the Hungarian youth to learn more about China and to foster the development of Chinese-Hungarian friendship. We believe that this "Chinese Language Day", will present a more colourful picture to the public about China, and therefore, it will strengthen and promote people's understanding and love for the traditional Chinese culture and Chinese education" – this was the message of the Cultural and Educational Office of Chinese Embassy in Hungary.
At the "Chinese Language Day" the participants could listen to plenary talks in the morning, and in the afternoon they discussed the most important issues online in the framework of two panel discussions.
Zsuzsanna Erdélyi, the head of the Hungarian-Chinese Bilingual Primary and Secondary School, presented the school’s mission and profile.Photo by: Ádám Jerney-Kovács
The conference featured presentations by Zsuzsanna Erdélyi, representing the Hungarian-Chinese Bilingual Primary and Secondary School, Alexandra Zoltai, Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Szeged, Dr. Levente Horváth, (from Shanghai, online) Director of the Eurasia Center of John von Neumann University, former consul general of Hungary in Shanghai, and Éva Ipolyi, Chinese interpreter and translator, Vice President of the Hungarian-Chinese Friendship Association.
Those interested could watch pre-recorded demo classes, in which 5th graders explored the topics within sports and grammar with the help of Anni Lü Yan and Emőke Kinda teachers.
- We are very happy that so many people joined our Chinese Language Day 2023, both personally and online. With this event we would like to show Szeged, the region and the teachers working here the importance of Chinese language education, and thereby, bring China closer to the people - summarized the aim of the event Alexandra Zoltai, Director of the Confucius Institute of SZTE. The next major public event associated with Chinese culture will be Panda Day at the Szeged Zoo on 28 May, Children's Day.
