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Confucius Institute in Barcelona gets underway

Inauguració de l'Institut Confuci de Barcelona
The Confucius Institute in Barcelona (ICB) was inaugurated on 15 April with the aim of spreading the language and culture of China in Catalonia. ICB is the result of an accord between the Confucius Institute (Hanban), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, University of Barcelona and Casa Àsia.

15/04/2010

The inauguration took place at Casa Àsia in Barcelona and included the presence of Ignasi Cardelús, Representative of the Presidency and Institutional Relations of Barcelona City Council; Jesús Sanz, General Director of Casa Àsia; Anna Ripoll, Rector of UAB; Carles Carreras, Vice-Rector of UB Institutional Relations; Peng Long, Vice-Rector of Beijing Foreign Studies University; Wang Shixiong, Consol General of China; and Xu Lin, General Director of Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) in China.

Since the signing of the agreement to create ICB in 2008, the institutions (Hanban, UAB, UB and Casa Àsia) have elaborated and approved the states of the Foundation Confucius Institute in Barcelona. The activities programmed for ICB will be organised by the foundation's board of trustees. In addition, Hanban appointed Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) the ICB-associated university. Three of its professors will work at each of the three member institutions and one of its vice general directors will be working at ICB. It will also donate 3000 books and teaching material to the Confucius Library located at the Casa Àsia Media Library.

The Confucius Institute in Barcelona, the fourth opened in Spain after the offices in Madrid, Granada and Valencia, will be offering academic and cultural activities at Casa Àsia, UAB and UB. ICB will be offering the following activities:

  • Different types of Chinese language courses, including multimedia and online courses.
  • Tailored courses for needs in business, study and exam preparation, translation and interpreting, tourism, commerce, banking and traditional Chinese medicine.
  • Courses belonging to official academic programmes and valid in teaching centres of China.
  • Teacher training courses for those wishing to teach Chinese.
  • Official language level (HSK, hanyu shuiping kaoshi) and Chinese teaching certificate (CTCFL) exams.

ICB will be offering all activities at the start of the 2010/11 academic year. Although there will be a joint activities programme, many will be programmed specifically by one of the three institutions. In addition to strictly academic offers, ICB will soon be creating a website and has programmed visits from Chinese filmmakers and novelists, will be hosting the First Ibero-American Conference on Chinese Studies and offering summer courses and grants for students.

The ICB secretary's office is located at Casa Àsia while each university will attend to those interested in activities being held at the centre.

Confucius Institute in the world and Chinese language teaching

According to data by Hanban, there are a total of 282 Confucius Institutes in 88 different countries: 70 in Asia, 21 in Africa, 87 in America and 10 in Oceania. There are 94 institutes in Europe in 29 different countries. The first European country to open an Confucius Institute was Sweden. Before the official inauguration of ICB two other activities took place: music, dance, martial arts and demonstrations of calligraphy by Northeast Normal University, Changchun, at UB, and the Chinese proficiency test HSK, at UAB's Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.

According to the Chinese Embassy in Spain over 10,000 students study Chinese in Spain. More than 1,500 people study Chinese in Catalonia either at university (UAB,UPF, UB, UOC), the Official Language School, the Institute of Chinese Culture (ICC) and Casa Àsia. These figures however do not include private classes or other language centres.