On November 2nd, the 2017-2018 in-service training for volunteer Chinese teachers sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and the Confucius Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia was held in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. 238 volunteer Chinese teachers all over Cambodia participated in the training.
Zuo Wenxin, Political Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia, said that spurred by the “Belt and Road” initiative, Sino-Cambodian relations have entered their best period. Inaugurated in 2009, the Confucius Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia is consistently committed to promoting the dissemination of Chinese language and culture by offering courses to various sectors of society, including government, military, enterprises, social workers and monks, at 27 institutes and 3 Confucius Classrooms in 12 provinces and cities of Cambodia.
She praised that the Confucius Institute has become a well-known brand of Chinese education in Cambodia and the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) is going to build the institute into a “Global Model Confucius Institute”.
SOT Samnang, Deputy Secretary General of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said that in the past seven years more than one thousand volunteer Chinese teachers have been teaching in Cambodia. Therefore, the Confucius Institute has become a multi-function center for Chinese language teaching, training of local teachers of Chinese, the Chinese Language Testing, application for the Confucius Institute scholarship, experience of Chinese culture, research in Sino-Cambodian friendly relations and publication of bilingual books in both Chinese and Cambodian, serving as an important bridge of friendship and exchange between Cambodia and China.
According to Teng Lianshuai, Deputy Director of the Volunteer Office of Hanban, a total of more than 100,000 students have been taught since the Confucius Institute Headquarters initiated its volunteer Chinese teacher program in Cambodia in 2010. (cited from Confucius Institute Headquarters, source: chinanews.com, Story by Huang Yaohui)
