At 11 a.m. on 26th December, the inauguration ceremony of the Center of Chinese Language and Culture was held in Slavic University, under the DUFL’s Confucius Institute of Everan State University of Language and Social Science in Armenia. Chinese ambassador plenipotentiary to Armenia Tian Erlong and his wife Zhang Yingmei attend the ceremony. Other distinguished attendees included the dean of the Confucius Institute, representatives of teachers and students, the leaders of Slavic University, the students of Chinese major and the press representatives from China and Armenia. The president of DUFL, Professor Sun Yuhua sent a message of greetings.
At the beginning, Ambassador Tian and President Darbinian cut the ribbon for Center of Chinese Language and Culture in the Slavic University.
Later, Ambassador Tian and President Darbinian delivered speeches successively. President Darbinian pointed out in his remarks that the friendship between Chinese and Armenian people boasts a long history, that Armenian people have great respect for Chinese people, and that as one of the major developing countries, China enjoys a broad prospect in the cooperation with Armenia. Slavic university attaches so much importance to the teaching of Chinese and Chinese culture that it had planned to set up Chinese a major as early as 7 years ago, and it successfully became the first university to make Chinese the prior foreign language. Teachers and students at this university love Chinese culture and are eager to establish a center of Chinese language and cultural. In the early 2014, the university signed an agreement with the Confucius Institute to set up the Center of Language and Culture, which was officially put into operation under the help of the dean of the Confucius Institute and the Chinese teachers. The establishment of the Center will improve the teaching level of Chinese and promote the exchange and cooperation between Slavic and Chinese universities.
Ambassador Tian congratulated the Confucius Institute and Slavic University upon the establishment of the center. He highly recognized the great performance in Chinese teaching by Slavic University as a Russian school, and briefly introduced the glorious achievements of China’s reform and opening up and the brisk development of the Sino- Armenian bilateral cooperation. He encouraged the students to learn Chinese and to study in China and to experience Chinese culture by themselves so as to contribute to the friendly cooperation between the two countries in the years to come.
After that, the students of Chinese major introduced with fluent Chinese the Armenian history and culture, the teaching condition of Slavic University and shared their feelings and experience during their summer camp in China.
When the ceremony was concluded, Ambassador Tian and his wife were showed around the university under the company of President Darbinian. The two sides held a colloquium to exchange ideas in the cooperation of education and scientific research between Chinese and Armenian universities.(Liu Ronghua)
