Recently, Su Jianhua, Associate Professor of the Translation Department of the College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University and Dean of the Confucius Institute at the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil, led 5 Spanish undergraduates of Class 2019 to the International Chinese Education Foundation to carry out the summer practice of “Teachers and Students Together” on “The Model and Comparison of the Dissemination of Chinese Culture in Brazil Confucius Institutes”. They held an exchange discussion with Li Hongyu, deputy director of the Foundation’s Project Funding Department.
During the exchange, Su Jianhua introduced the cooperation between Nankai University and the Confucius Institute at the Federal University of Ceara in Brazil. Li Hongyu introduced to the team members the overall operation mode of the Confucius Institute and its development and changes in recent years, including the specific teaching content and cultural activities of the Confucius Institute and its differences from the Cervantes Institute, the changes in the teaching model of the Confucius Institute during the epidemic, the role of Confucius Institutes in the two-way communication of culture, the innovation and development of the teaching model of Confucius Institutes, and the curriculum of Confucius Institutes.
Li Hongyu also interacted with the students. She said, “The mission of the Confucius Institute is not to export culture but to promote cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and other countries. The Chinese and foreign cooperative institutions of Confucius Institutes around the world provide many valuable exchange opportunities for academic exchanges.” She said that up to now, there are 10 Confucius Institutes in Brazil. As a bridge of cultural communication, Confucius Institutes have played a role in promoting exchanges between China and Brazil in all aspects.
The summer social practice of “Teachers and Students Together” allowed the team members to walk out of the campus to gain an in-depth understanding of the development and changes of the Confucius Institutes in Brazil during the epidemic period and the innovation of teaching models in the form of academic exchanges and interviews, providing important material for studying the model and comparison of the dissemination of Chinese culture by Confucius Institutes in Brazil. Through these practical activities, the team members exercised their communication skills and organizational skills, fully mobilized the knowledge learned in the university, accumulated relevant knowledge about Confucius Institutes and cultural communication, and opened up a deeper and wider international perspective, laying a more solid and stable foundation for future study and life. In the future, it can hopefully contribute to the cooperation between Nankai University and the Confucius Institute and the spread of Chinese culture to the outside world.
