BACKGROUND
Chinese is the language with the largest number of speakers in the world. With its long history, rich culture and China’s booming economy, the Chinese language has attracted over 100 million learners worldwide. The University of Macau (UM) received the approval from the Office of Chinese Language Council International to establish Confucius Institute in 2017, as a response to the ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative, and to develop Macao into an international platform for Chinese language education for overseas countries, especially Portuguese-speaking countries. The Confucius Institute became operational in the first quarter of 2018.
Over the past 400 years, Macao has been widely recognized as a place where China and the West meet. The institute will make good use of Macao’s unique status as a special administrative region, its advantageous geographic location, as well as its cultural and linguistic diversity to develop into an international platform for Chinese language teaching, training, and exchange for students from Portuguese-speaking countries and countries with relations with Macao.
Chinese is the language with the largest number of speakers in the world. With its long history, rich culture and China’s booming economy, the Chinese language has attracted over 100 million learners worldwide. Over the past 400 years, Macao has been widely recognized as a place where China and the West meet. Macao boasts of a unique history, diverse cultural background and a multilingual society. Making use of this unique setting, the Confucius Institute is committed to building Macao into a platform for teaching, research and training of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) in Lusophone regions and beyond, with an aim to promoting cross-language and cross-cultural communication in an international setting. In 2017, the University of Macau (UM) received the approval from the Office of Chinese Language Council International to establish Confucius Institute, as a response to the Macao SAR government’s effort to participate in China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative and to develop Macao into an international platform for Chinese language education for overseas countries, especially Portuguese-speaking countries. The Confucius Institute became operational in first quarter of 2018. The institute will make good use of Macao’s unique status as a special administrative region, its advantageous geographic location, as well as its cultural and linguistic diversity to develop into an international platform for Chinese language teaching, training, and exchange for students from Portuguese-speaking countries and countries with relations with Macao. Based on the courses in teaching Chinese as a foreign language offered by the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, the institute will integrate teaching and research resources both inside and outside the university as well as those from the Department of Portuguese to carry out various training and research activities, cultural exchange activities, as well as Chinese language proficiency examinations.
MISSION
To teach Chinese as a foreign language, to offer Chinese language courses and minor courses in Chinese as a second language, to bring people together from across the Portuguese-speaking regions and beyond to learn and interact in the University of Macau;
To train Chinese language teachers, to administer Chinese language proficiency tests and provide certification for Chinese language teachers, to develop online training courses and innovative learning tools; and
To promote Chinese culture, facilitate cultural exchange, hold cultural events, seminars, international conferences, and to provide Chinese-related language services, translation services and cultural consultation.