Young inhabitants of Wroclaw demonstrate an increasingly ambitious approach to learning foreign languages. They want to learn not only English, German or French, but also Chinese, Japanese or Arabic. The Confucius Institute functioning at the University of Wroclaw has responded to linguistic ambitions of our students for four years.
“Four years ago we sent an invitation to participate in free Chinese courses to Wroclaw schools for the first time," says Aneta Marchewka from the Confucius Institute. “That initiative met with a lively response from municipal and private institutions. We were slightly surprised by this, because we have only four teachers running such courses," she adds.
In order to take part in the project, each school must fulfil a number of requirements. Firstly, a group of at least of 10 students willing to attend the course must be gathered. Apart from that, lessons must take place in the presence of a person with a degree in teaching methods and a command of English; such a person will be selected by the school. Moreover, the school must provide a classroom in which lessons will be held.
“Lessons are conducted by native speakers. They are students or university graduates who arrived to China under student exchange programs. In our institution, they learn to teach Chinese and gain experience,” explains Aneta Marchewka.
Secondary school students and kindergarten-age children learn Chinese
One of the schools taking part in the project is the General Secondary School no. 12 at Pl. Orląt Lwowskich.
“It is an extra attraction for the school. Most participants of these lessons treat them as a hobby, but there are two persons who approach them very diligently. However, we must remember that it is a very difficult language, so I guess nobody expects that they will have a perfect command of Chinese after such a course,” says Anna Gil-Kisiecka, a teacher of English at the GSO no. 12.
One of the first institutions that started to co-operate with the Confucius Institute in Wroclaw were the Król Maciuś kindergarten and the Leonardo da Vinci non-public primary school.
“We promote courses of less popular foreign languages. A special in-house curriculum created for our kindergarten includes, among others, three foreign language courses: English, Russian and Mandarin Chinese," says Małgorzata Lech-Krawczyk, who is in charge of both of these institutions. “The Institute helps us not only to prepare pupils for the YCT examination, but also to organise foreign language scholarships,” she adds.
Last year a group of school pupils and graduates went out for a two-week language scholarship to Xiamen University in China.
And when they already catch the bug...
The Confucius Institute is planning to open a number of Chinese language centres in the city next year.
UL
