Education Delegation in Kentucky Visited NCEPU & the First Advisory Committee of the Confucius Institution of Western Kentucky University was Held

Publishing time:2019-10-15    Viewer:

An education delegation of seventeen members from the Kentucky visited NCEPU on October 9th. President Yang Yongping and Vice-President Wang Zengping met with the delegation and held the first Advisory Committee meeting of NCEPU’s new Confucius Institute, the Confucius Institute of Western Kentucky University(WKU).

The Confucius Institute of WKU, jointly established by NCEPU and WKU in the United States, was closed on April 22nd due to the implementation of the National Defense Authorization Act. In order to preserve the efforts and investment of Confucius Institute headquarters in Kentucky for many years, Hanban instructed NCEPU and foreign side should try to set up a new Confucius Institute and preserve the hard-won achievements in the past eight years. NCEPU and foreign side have taken active actions and obtained the support of most school districts, and finally decide that the Simpson County Education Bureau of Kentucky will undertake the establishment of the new Confucius Institute. Meanwhile, on June 28th Simpson County Education Bureau formally signed a contract with the headquarters of Confucius Institute to set up the Confucius Institute of WKU.

President Yang Yongping introduced the general situation, the department layout and the development program of NCEPU during the meeting. He said that NCEPU provided strong support to the construction of the Confucius Institute of WKU for many years, and the establishment of Confucius Institution made brilliant achievements by and of both sides.  Although the establishment of Confucius Institution has experienced ups and downs in the past six months, both sides have worked together to preserve the cumulative achievements for many years. At the same time, president Yang Yongping expressed the high respect to all participants of the Confucius Institute of WKU. The success of this transformation should thank predecessors for laying the good foundation.

The delegation of Confucius Institute in WKU thanked for the support of NCEPU. Confucius Institutes in the United States have been subjected to a strong "anti-Confucius Institutes" trend, and many Confucius Institutes have been impacted since January 2018. Confucius Institute in WKU has been the first successful transition in this extreme event with the shortest transition period so far, owing to the joint efforts and support of all parties. Although there are many difficulties after the transformation, such as the shortage of teachers and the application for teaching qualification certificates, the Confucius Institution has straightened out solutions. The Confucius Institute in WKU hopes to break down cultural barriers, enhance mutual exchanges and understanding, and deepen cooperation between the two sides in cooperation with NCEPU in the future. Terrill, the foreign president, said that Confucius Institute in WKU would continue to focus on Chinese language teaching and achieve gradual growth of the number of students, not only in Western and southern Kentucky, but also throughout Kentucky.

After the signing ceremony, teachers and students of NCEPU led the delegation to visit the robot Club. The club is an exchange platform with the goal of cultivating problem awareness and innovation ability, the principle of interest driven, highlighting independent thinking and focusing on the process to reach the goals, and has become the carrier of problem exploration and competition in the disciplinary field.

Translator: Cheng Jingjing

Proof-teacher: Huang Fuwei