The globalization pace of Confucius Institutes
- By Li Jie
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E-mail China Today, June 20, 2017
Next Crossroad
"Confucius Institutes have now reached a crossroad. We must seriously consider how they are going to develop and what kind of path we should take." This was the comment Xu made on the development of Confucius Institutes after a review of the past decade.
According to the Confucius Institutes development plan, their global layout will be basically completed by 2020. This will entail unifying quality standards, test certifications, and the appointment and training of teachers; realizing multilingualism and broad coverage of international Chinese language textbooks; establishing a wide-ranging global Chinese language and culture communication system with comprehensive functions, and making Chinese one of the languages learned and spoken widely throughout the world.
Teaching staff are integral to the future development of Confucius Institutes. At present, these teachers are mainly professionals and volunteers assigned from China. All, including Chinese deans, sign contracts valid for one to four years. Most return to their original posts in China when they finish their overseas assignments. Then groups of newly-selected teachers go to Confucius Institutes around the world.
During her two-year posting at the Confucius Institute, Wang has witnessed two shifts of volunteers and many other staff rotations. "This actually increases the difficulties in our work," she said. Every group of workers needs training in order to be familiar with the work right from the start. Li has returned to China after finishing her one-year voluntary work, and felt reluctant to say goodbye when the time came to leave. "Just as I started to feel attuned to the work there, I had to leave. I knew and had achieved a rapport with all my students. But a new teacher needs to start from the very beginning while carrying on with the teaching plan. This is a challenge for both teacher and students," she said.
Localization of teachers has been frequently mentioned over the past two years in connection with the development of Confucius Institutes. However, taking Finland as an example, no more than 10 Finnish teachers hold local Chinese teaching certification. Localization is hence a long-term, complicated project. "At the moment at least, it's a difficult proposition," Wang said. Guaranteeing the quality of assigned teaching staff, therefore, seems a particularly important task.
Wang has lately been pondering another matter. She hopes to provide educational and consulting courses for local enterprises in Finland, so forging more links between the Confucius Institute and the local community. This will, at the same time, make more funds available, something that is also relevant to the future sustainable development of Confucius Institutes.
LI JIE is a reporter with People's Daily Overseas Edition.
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