Language School:New Confucius Institute Inaugurated in Colombia

Source：HanBan

China’s Ambassador to Colombia Gao Zhengyue Friday inaugurated a new branch of the Confucius Institute in Medellin, Colombia.

The inauguration was hosted in the city Council Hall in the presence of Medellin’s mayor Alonso Salazar, who said his city expects to reduce "the distance to China."

With the opening of this new branch of the Chinese language and culture teaching institution, the Asia Pacific Studies Center of EAFIT University and the Law School of the University of Antioquia will offer Mandarin and Chinese culture lessons starting in May.

Director of the International Affairs Office from the University of Antioquia, Sebastien Longhurst, said that this is the beginning of "friendship ties between one of the most important countries of this century and a city like Medellin, with its international vision."

Longhurst said that through the Confucius Institutes, Chinese language and culture are being promoted in over 88 countries, of which 21 are in Latin America -- including Colombia, with a Confucius Institute already established in its capital Bogota.

The institute in Medellin will offer its educational programs to students and professionals willing to learn Mandarin.

In the coming days, three professors from the Foreign Lanaguage University of Dalian will arrive in Medellin to teach the language, Longhurst added.

The director of the Confucius Institute in Medellin and Colombia’s former ambassador to China, Pablo Echavarria Toro, said "Colombia and Latin America have to start interacting with China. And the Confucius Institute in Medellin is a way to start approaching China."