Peking University, Nov. 21, 2012: The summarization and exchange conference of “US headmasters to visit China” was held at PKU on the afternoon of November 14th. US Headmasters, educational officials and representatives of universities got together at Yingjie Exchange Center. Vice director of Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters) (http://www.hanban.edu.cn/ ) Jingwei, PKU vice president Li Yansong, and member of College Board Maghan Keita took part in this event.
“Chinese Bridge-US Headmasters to Visit China” sponsored by Hanban and supported by College Board, was an important exchange event to introduce Chinese language and culture to the world. Hanban and College Board signed the cooperation agreement Chinese Language and Culture Project when President Hu Jintao visited America in April, 2006. This Chinese Bridge project was one of the important constituents of this agreement and it aimed at enhancing the understanding of Chinese language and culture to American education circles.
Li made a speech firstly. He gave the warm welcome to the headmasters of American schools and introduced that PKU is one of the universities that established the major in teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. He hoped that more and more American students could come to PKU for further study and the “Chinese Bridge” event could be made as good as possible.
Jingwei, Vice director of Hanban, an alumnus of PKU, was very glad that this conference could be held at her Alma Mater and gave thanks to many provinces for their support to Hanban.
The member of College Board Maghan Keita said three “thanks” in Chinese at the beginning of his speech to express his gratitude to Chinese teachers and officials who gave them warm reception. He hoped that more Chinese courses could be set up in the USA to make more American children fall in love with Chinese culture and language.
The delegation stayed in China for ten days. They were divided into ten groups to visit Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Henan, Shanghai, Guangdong, Anhui and Tianjin provinces. During the conference, representatives from each group made summary reports about their feelings and experiences during the trip.
Steve Snell, who came from Texas Independent School District, discovered that Chinese students were proud of their schools and nationalities. He also sensed the common difficulties that Chinese and American education faced with. “I fall in love with Chinese children through this trip. I will make my children to study in China later on”, he said.
Written by: Xu Yang
Edited by: Zhao Xiaowei, Zhang Jiang
Source: http://www.oir.pku.edu.cn/Item/4873.aspx
