Confucious Institute – Bridge between Slovenia and China
„Learning without thinking is useless, thinking without learning dangerous“
The Confucius Institute Ljubljana has generously reopened its door, on the October 17th, for all the people interested in gaining a fresh knowledge about Chinese culture and language. EF news team participated in the introducing lectures, led by prof. PhD. Mitja Saje and employees of the Institute have presented us some main projects that took place in the past two years since establishing of the Confucius Institute, but, on the other hand, we were also curious and asked them to tell us something more about upcoming events and the plans for future.
MSc. Danijela Voljč, director (manager) of Confucius Institute
“In some Elementary schools in Ljubljana and Maribor we have started with the testing Chinese classes”
Confucius Institute has been in Slovenia presented already for two years, in the cooperation with the Faculty of Economics of the University of Ljubljana. What is the main reason for its foundation?
“The first reason for establishing Confucius Institute is to make Slovene people more familiar with the Chinese culture and language and to give them opportunity to learn more about its diversity. In the Institute, we also believe that knowledge represents a value, which has been also written as our motto. At the same time, we strongly believe that the knowledge about extremely rich tradition, the long lasting Chinese culture and history will be more and more interesting for the people from the business world. That is the first condition for successful partnership relations.”
Has Chinese-Slovene relationship become better on the cultural-economic area, since the establishment of the Confucius Institute?
“In the Institute, we work very hard and intensive. The whole May was marked with the celebration of the Chinese culture and we were quite pleasant surprised on the interest of our numerous visitors, that came from the different parts of Slovenia. The public was extremely excited about the quality of Chinese performers, artists with their unique exhibitions and about an interesting program itself. But, the greatest success so far was testing Chinese lectures in some elementary schools in Ljubljana and Maribor. A surprisingly vast number of our children will be able to listen and learn about this culture. Furthermore, in the Primary School Koseze we already have more than 100 students participating in Chinese – Slovene cultural connecting program. The situation is similar in the other elementary schools and kindergartens. At the moment, this is a post-school activity for our children, but we hope that soon, it will be incorporated as an obligatory activity in our schools. Our efforts in reaching that goal are already in process at the Ministry of Education and Sports. For that reason, if everything goes like planned, Slovenia will become more competitive country in this field on the global level and for highly developed countries such as UK and USA.”
“On the other hand, it is important to notice the growth of the interest by the people from the business area. They are participating and taking our lectures in an increasing number, because, primarily they are interesting in Chinese culture, language and the recipe how to do successful business in China. For that reason, we have organized in the past a lot of cultural events, excursions and language courses for the businessmen, where they have learned a lot about their business customs, Chinese law, administrative barriers etc. To sum it up, we think that we are successful, because we made a lot of people realized the importance of learning a new culture.”
“…to understand why they write as they write, to understand the character of their nation”
There has been a lot of talk lately, about Chinese language and culture courses at Confucius Institute. Is the number of participants increasing and who is welcome to attend?
“Firstly, our courses are primarily for the businessmen and the students of Faculty of Economics. But, the courses also take place in few other faculties, as demand for the lecture is increasing. The students, pupils and all the people, who are willing to face an exotic language, with its inspiring tradition, are welcome. At the end, our students will be able to understand the character of that nation. On the other hand, the courses are especially recommended for the businessmen in order to do business in China more successful. What is more, at the University of Beijing there is also an interest in learning Slovene.
At the moment, we have five Chinese young teachers, who will have lectures in the primary and secondary schools. The teachers are extremely motivated and enthusiastic about the courses, which is very inspiring for the students.”
Plans for the future…
“We are really busy. Till the end of the year, there are two upcoming holydays. In December we are going to celebrate “Day of elderly people” and are visiting old people’s home in Trnovo, with a very rich entertainment program and delicious cuisine. Afterwards, “Student’s Day” will also take place. At this point, we will present our work and plans to the students.
On the other hand, we also celebrate all the bigger events according to Chinese culture and next year (2013), we are celebrating the Beginning of the Spring, Chinese New Year, organizing a Boatfestival, preparing in May a month of Chinese traditional food and lifestyle and for the end of the school year, we are planning an excursion to China.
Msc. Irena Kržan, project manager at Confucius Institute
“We are supported more and more by the business sector and at the same time, they are asking us how they can help us.”
Do you have a support from the business world?
“We are supported by the dean of the Faculty of Economics and by the current ambassador of China in Slovenia. Also, we are supported more and more by the business sector and at the same time, they are asking us how can they help us improve our Institute. At the moment, we don’t have any sponsors, but in the few last years, we have managed to organize two summer schools for Slovene students and on the other hand, 80 Slovene students were participating in the summer course in China, where they had an great opportunity to meet some successful Slovenian business stories and that Asian culture from a closer perspective.”
Iskra Tanjga, efnews
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