PKU delegation attends the 2019 Council Meeting of the Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan
Sep 17, 2019
Peking University, Sept. 17, 2019: On the afternoon of September 3, the 2019 council meeting of the Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan was held on the Suzaku Campus of Ritsumeikan University. Present at the meeting were Yoshio Nakatani, president of Ritsumeikan University, Ryuzo Ueno, vice president of Ritsumeikan University, Yo Unoki, president of the Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan, Tian Gang, executive vice president of Peking University, Zhao Yang, dean of School of Chinese as a Second Language, et al.
Delegates of PKU (right) and Ritsumeikan University (left)
Yoshio Nakatani welcomed the visit of PKU delegates. He expressed his gratitude to PKU for its help and support in providing qualified teachers and holding various lectures. Furthermore, he hoped that PKU and Ritsumeikan University would make the most of the opportunities provided by the Confucius Institute and both can benefit from deeper exchange and cooperation in the field of science and engineering.
Yo Unoki made the annual report of 2018 in the council meeting. In retrospect of the past academic year, he concluded that the Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan had enrolled more students at a younger age. Besides, they held a series of special activities such as lectures on overcoming weakness and understanding intercultural environment, Chinese salon, and Chinese speech contests. Joint lectures by both PKU and Ritsumeikan University were very popular with students and locals. Going forward, the Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan will sustain its high standard and distinctive features of teaching.
The attendees of the meeting also discussed further improvement of the Confucius Institute and cooperation between the two universities. Zhao Yang gave a brief introduction of the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) of PKU School of Chinese as a Second Language. The courses include HSK, the training of mandarin Chinese teachers, MicroMaster, and so on. Teachers and students of the Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan are able to use all the above-mentioned resources provided by PKU.
Tian Gang made the concluding remarks, saying that thanks to the Confucius Institute, PKU and Ritsumeikan University had established a long-term cooperative relationship. Since its establishment in 2005, the Confucius Institute has held plenty of lectures by Chinese scholars and co-edited a host of teaching materials. On account of its contribution to Sino-Japan cultural exchanges, it has been praised as “Model Confucius Institute” three times. Finally, Tian expressed his expectation for potential cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence and robot research between both sides.
Written by: Guo Xinyu
Edited by: Hu Rong
Source: PKU News (Chinese)
