Casa Asia

The Confucius Institute of Barcelona starts up

Casa Asia Headquarters hosted last Thursday 15th of April the official opening of the Confucius Institute of Barcelona (ICB). The starting up of ICB, which aims at spreading the teaching of the Chinese language and culture in Catalonia, is the result of the agreement between the Main Headquarters of the Confucius Institute (Hanban) of China, the University Autonomous of Barcelona, the University of Barcelona and Casa Asia.

At the opening event the representative of Presidency and Institutional Relations of the City Council of Barcelona, Ignasi Cardelús, took part, as well as the Director General of Casa Asia, Jesús Sanz, the Vice Chancellor of UAB, Anna Ripoll, the Vice Chancellor of Institutional Relations of UB, Carles Carreras, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Foreign Studies of Beijing, Peng Long, the General Consul of the People's Republic of China, Wang Shixiong, and the Director General of the Main Headquarters of the Confucius Institute (Hanban) of China, Xu Lin.

Since the signature of the agreement for the creation of ICB (2008), involved institutions(Hanban, UAB, UB and Casa Asia) have made and reached a consensus on the bylaws of the Foundation Confucius Institute of Barcelona. This foundation, through its high board, will be the body that will manage the activities of ICB from now on. Likewise, Hanban has appointed the University of Foreign Studies of Beijing (BSF) as the university associated to ICB that will contribute with three teachers, one for every one of the three headquarters, and a general assistant manager for ICB. Hanban has also given 3000 books and different didactical material for the Confucius Library.

The Confucius Institute of Barcelona is the fourth institute that has been opened in Spain after the centres that already exist in Madrid, Granada and Valencia, and will develop academic and cultural activities at Casa Asia, the University Autonomous of Barcelona and the University of Barcelona.

Specifically, ICB will carry out, among others, the following activities:
· Teaching of Chinese language with different methods, multimedia and online included.
· Specific courses related to Chinese language: Business, preparation to carry out studies in China, exam preparation, translation and interpretation, tourism, trade, bank and Chinese traditional medicine.
· Courses that belong to official Chinese academic programmes, accepted for teaching centres of the People's Republic of China.
· Educating courses for teachers of Chinese.
· Holding of official level exams of HSK, (hanyu shuiping kaoshi) and of training of the teaching of this language as a foreign language.

The Confucius Institute of Barcelona will work from next academic couse 2010/11. Even though there will be a joint programme of activities, specific activities will be programmed by each of the parts. This way, as well as the strictly academic offer ─Mandarin Chinese courses in the three headquarters─, the creation of a website has been planned, the visit of Chinese writers and film makers, summer courses and a scholarship programme for Chinese students, among other activities.

The secretary's office of the Confucius Institute of Barcelona is placed in Casa Asia and will include a director appointed by all of the parts.

The Confucius Institute in the world and Chinese language teaching

In total, according to information given by Hanban, there are 282 Confucius Institute in the world in 88 countries: 70 in Asia, 21 in Africa, 87 in America and 10 in Oceania. In Europe there are 94 in 29 different countries. The first European country to host a Confucius Institute was Sweden. This Thursday, in Barcelona, an institution that is now opened officially will be started up, even through it has already carried out a couple of previous activities: A music, dance, martial arts and calligraphy show by the Normal University of the Northeast (Changchun), on the 1st of February 2010 at the assembly hall of UB, and the level exam of Chinese (HSK), called for by the Confucius Institute, on the 12th of December of last year at the Faculty of Translation and Interpretation of UAB, in Bellaterra.

In Spain there are more than 10000 students that study Chinese, according to the Embassy of the People's Republic of China. In Catalonia there are more than 1500, among the different titles the universities offer (UAB-UPF, UB, UOC), the Official School of Languages of Catalonia, the Institute of Chinese Culture (ICC) and Casa Asia. However, they are non exact figures because they come from academies, private teachers and other schools.

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