Junior college and secondary school teachers have reaped the benefits of a three-day course on contemporary China, offered with Shandong University. The institute also organises cultural tours in China.

Teachers tasked to groom bicultural talent for Singapore can get more than a helping hand from the Confucius Institute at NTU.

Besides courses on Chinese language and culture, they can sign up for cultural immersion programmes that will take them to the heart of China. 

Taught by Shandong University professors
Introduction to Contemporary China – launched on 10 November by Mr Chan Soo Sen, Minister of State for Education and Trade & Industry – has already benefited 20 participants, including secondary and junior college teachers.

This three-day course offers insights into the country's psychological and cultural structure as well as its social and economic development.

As a result of attending the course, Ms Yeo Buay Kee, who teaches Chinese at Nanyang Girls' High School, now understands China better. "The knowledge will come in useful when I conduct my lessons," she shares.

Organised with Shandong University's College of International Education, the programme is taught by Prof Chen Yan, Vice-President of Shandong University and Director of the Faculty of Arts, and Prof Huang Shao An, Director of the Centre for Economics Research and Property Rights Research Institute.

Fourteen-day cultural tour
Forty junior college teachers and students will experience the institute's new cultural immersion programme – known as the Confucius' Hometown Cultural Tour – this month.

The two-week trip covers lessons on Chinese calligraphy and Peking Opera; visits to Qufu, Confucius' birthplace, and Mount Tai, where emperors in ancient China came to worship the heavens; as well as talks and hands-on cultural activities such as kite-making.

According to Assoc Prof Koh Hock Kiat, Director-Designate of Confucius Institute, NTU, the university is pleased to play "a key role in promoting and developing Chinese language, culture, studies and business in Singapore and the region".

He adds that more programmes will be rolled out with Shandong University, including "the development of materials and teaching curriculum for Chinese teachers in Singapore and the region".

© Corporate Communications Office