Recently, Huaqiao University (HQU) held a closing ceremony for its online program of International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship (ICLTS). All trainees sang “A Fertile Land”, HQU’s school song, and “Don’t Say Goodbye”, marking the completion of their one-year Chinese language teachers training.

The program was hosted by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC) under China’s Ministry of Education and organized by Huaqiao University. A total of 93 Chinese teachers from 7 countries, namely Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Italy and Russia, participated in the one-year or one-semester online training courses.

On the closing ceremony, the trainees also sang some other Chinese songs, played a specially-made video about their one-year study life to express their deep gratitude to the university and the teachers. Many of them were so reluctant to say goodbye and couldn’t hold back their tears.

To guarantee the quality of the online program, HQU had made a thorough preparation. The International Chinese Education Office, responsible for overall planning, assessed the learners’ general Chinese language proficiency and their profession features, and divided them into different classes and groups with featured teaching syllabus. The teaching staff come from the Preparatory Education College and the Chinese Language and Culture College. The two colleges combined their respective advantages in designing crash courses in Chinese language and in teaching Chinese as the second language and cultural teaching. They tailored courses for these Chinese teachers, aiming to promote their professionalism.

The ICLTS online program adopts an innovative mode that offers international Chinese language education through the Internet. The CLEC has made it possible for overseas Chinese language teachers to take refresher courses against the backdrop of the global pandemic. In 2020, HQU became one of the first universities in China to undertake the program.

The Closing Ceremony

Online Class Screenshot

(Editor: Cai Juntao)