With more than 2,000 British students studying in China today, we look at the benefits of an eductional and cultural exchange.
With more than 2,000 British students studying in China today, we look at the benefits of an eductional and cultural exchange.
China has also been striving to attract more overseas students
Knowing the importance that international students will have on the future and on China’s interactions with the world, this continuous investment will push further improvements in education at a time when state support for education in the world is difficult. China is seriously addressing the regulatory issues that affect international study in China with the intention of making it increasingly attractive and easy to facilitate.
But there is always the question of how foreign students can learn the language and culture of China before arriving to study. To this end, China has been reaching out for years, with its drive to establish Confucius Institutes to promote Chinese culture around the world. Several of these initiatives have taken place in the UK.
A summer course in Cardiff University’s Confucius Institute, allowed teachers and students from 12 primary and secondary schools to taste some of the more traditional elements of Chinese culture. Painting Chinese blue and white porcelain, calligraphy, painting the face masks of Beijing opera, learning Kungfu – all of these cultural areas were explored and explained throughout the week.
Since the establishment of the first Confucius Institute in the UK in June 2005, 12 more Institutes, and 23 Confucius classrooms have been established, which equates to 10 per cent of the total number of Confucius Institutes and classrooms in the world.
In order to meet the requests of British universities, Hanban - the Confucius Institute headquarters and partner universities in China -have been active in providing educational materials, Chinese teachers, and a wide range of support.
Confucius Institutes and classrooms mainly teach Chinese. It is little known, however, that the world’s first Institute set up in London’s South Bank University focused on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
The essence of TCM cannot be clearly interpreted in foreign languages and thus the integration of TCM with Chinese language teaching is the most distinctive feature of the TCM Confucius Institute, which offers courses in acupuncture, massage, Chinese medicine beauty care, TCM nursing and other professional courses, in addition to language and culture teaching.
Traditional Chinese medicine diagnoses diseases using four methods: looking (at the patient’s complexion); listening (to his breath); asking (about the symptoms) and feeling (the pulse). In Chinese culture, the young are taught to utilise the same methods when learning the language as well.
In March 2009, Steven Lipscombe and George Martin excelled in The UK round of the 8th Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students.
In July, they were invited to the semi-finals of the competition in China. Although they didn’t get to the final, their superb performance gained them the opportunity to apply for a Confucius Institute Scholarship to study in a Chinese university.
Lipscombe said that Chinese culture is very difficult for Westerners to comprehend and he found the more he learned, the more he appreciated the breadth and profundity of Chinese culture.
Today, there are more than 2,000 British students studying in China, and the number of Chinese language learners in Britain from school to university has been growing rapidly.
This article formed part of a sponsored supplement: the Chinese Embassy in the UK in association with The Daily Telegraph.