Chinese & Asian Studies
Recent developments at the UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland Awards: The UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland has been awarded the accolade of ‘Confucius Institute of the Year’, one of 20 chosen from all the Confucius Institutes around the world, an incredible 3 times in the last 5 years – making it one of the most awarded Confucius Institutes in the world. This is the only award granted by the Confucius Institute Headquarters in Beijing, and reflects the vision, innovation and dedication of the directors and staff here in Ireland. Confucius Medal: The first of its kind anywhere in the world, the UCD CII ‘Confucius Medal’ is an award which recognises and celebrates outstanding achievement by an individual in educational and cultural relations between Ireland and China. The inaugural medal was presented to the then mayor of Beijing Mr. Guo Jinlong in September 2011 for his tireless work in making the new BJUT / UCD campus a reality. Chinese Studies Nationwide: Due to the growing demand and popularity of Chinese Studies all around Ireland, we have expanded our Chinese Studies programme substantially over the last 2 years, from 23 schools predominantly in the Greater Dublin area in 2010-2011 to over 100 schools spanning the entire country from Donegal to Wexford and everywhere in between this semester and the next. HSK and YCT: The UCD Confucius Institute has long established the largest testing centre for Mandarin Chinese in Ireland. The new HSK (Chinese: Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) and YCT (Youth Chinese Test) are both internationally standardized
n A Confucius Institute teacher explains the basics of Chinese painting and calligraphy to Irish teachers during Irish teacher training at UCD
exams that test and rate Chinese language proficiency. A number of exams are held throughout the year for individuals of all ages to see just how good their Chinese is, and to receive a valuable exam certificate from Beijing as proof. Teacher’s Pack for Chinese Culture and Language: We are here for the long haul, and to do that we realised that we had to make Chinese Studies sustainable and integrated. Working with the NCCA, we have developed a Teaching Pack for Irish teachers. The pack is PowerPoint based, and is designed so that Irish teachers with no background knowledge of Chinese language or culture can, with minimal preparation, teach classes on Chinese culture with some elements of Chinese language. These resources are available to download free of charge from our website. We
have also developed a Teacher’s Handbook to accompany these resources which contains a wealth of additional material for teachers to use and refer to when teaching the course. Short Courses: Following the initial announcement of the changes to the Junior Cycle, we immediately started working with the NCCA to realise the ambition of bringing Chinese Studies into the new Junior Cycle as a Short Course. We have extensive experience working with schools nationwide at all levels, from 1st year to 5th year and we are keen to satisfy the huge demand from schools to provide Chinese Studies at this level. Galway Training Centre: The Galway Education Centre has just announced that it is to become the regional training centre in the west of Ireland for Chinese Language and Culture in partnership with The UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland. This exciting new development is a direct response to an increase in demand for Chinese Studies classes in post primary schools in the Galway/Mayo and broader western Ireland region. Such was the interest that the need for a local venue providing cultural and linguistic training directly to teachers in the region became imperative. The first of the language courses, a 10 week basic Mandarin and Chinese teaching skills module began this autumn. Find OUT MORE
n The Minister of State for Training and Skills, Ciarán Cannon T.D. with his Chinese teacher Ms. Liu Xiangyi, as he begins taking Mandarin lessons with the UCD Confucius Institute.
UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland www.cii.ie Email: china@ucd.ie
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