BOR, Belgrade, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese directors of Confucius Institutes from several European countries, including Serbia, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, and the Netherlands, recently gathered in the eastern Serbian city of Bor to discuss new opportunities for the development of Chinese language education.
Gao Jing, Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Nis in Serbia, said that enthusiasm for learning Chinese overseas has been steadily increasing in recent years. The local Confucius Institute has collaborated with universities, secondary schools, and local enterprises, effectively linking education and talent cultivation with future employment opportunities.
"Chinese language teaching has expanded beyond textbooks into real-world practice and extended from universities into enterprises, sparking intrinsic motivation among Serbian students to learn Chinese. Recently, there has been a significant rise in demand for Chinese-language programs and teachers with cross-cultural backgrounds in Serbia," Gao said.
Yang Nian, a Chinese language teacher at the Confucius Institute at the University of Nis, shared insights from her interactions with Serbian employees working at Chinese companies, highlighting the practical value of Chinese language skills in the workplace.
Zhao Jing, Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Miskolc in Hungary, noted that Chinese tea art, painting, and calligraphy are especially popular among international students. She added that the rise of digital and intelligent technologies has created new opportunities for Chinese language education.
Gao Qinglong, Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Montenegro, emphasized that in the coming years, Chinese education will increasingly focus on integrated models such as "Chinese + tourism," "Chinese + catering," and "Chinese + business," further strengthening cooperation with local hotels, tourism agencies, and enterprises.
Feng Shaozhong, Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at Babes-Bolyai University in Romania, noted that Chinese language education was officially incorporated into Romania's national education system in 2017. High school students in Romania can now take Chinese as a foreign language in the national college entrance examination, and several primary and secondary schools have already made Chinese a compulsory subject. ■