AMMAN
- TAG-Confucius Institute (TAG-CI) and AL Hussein Technical University (HTU)
have held a meeting to organize cooperation in Chinese language teaching. Along
with Mr. Mamoun Abu Al-Sebaa, Jordanian Director of TAG-CI, Dr. Yang Songfang,
Chinese Director of TAG-CI, Ms. Randa Al-Yabroudi, other participants included:
Deputy Director of TAG-CI, Professor Ismael Hinti, President of HTU, Dr.
William Naugle, Director of the Office of International Relations, Dr. Sameer
Arabasi, Dean of School of Social and Basic Sciences, Dr. Hala Arar, Head of
Department of Languages, and Ms. Leen Aljadid, Officer of International
Relations.

Mr.
Mamoun stated that China had “The Silk Road” in ancient times and nowadays
China has put forward “The Belt and the Road” initiative which runs through the
ancient “Silk Road” and extends to African countries; towards  promoting exchanges and cooperation between
China and the countries along “The Belt and the Road” in the fields of economy,
trade, education, culture, etc. He said that the most important investment
currently is the investment in human resources and TAG-CI has been committed to
the cultivation of talents of those who are proficient in Chinese language and
culture. The partners of TAG-CI Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global) and
Shenyang Normal University (SNU) have renewed a 10-year cooperation agreement.
The core work of TAG-CI is to provide Jordanian students with Chinese language
and culture education. The teachers of TAG-CI are excellent professional
teachers who have been carefully selected, examined and trained, thanks to
textbooks that come from China. Dr. Yang Songfang compiled the ‘Business Chinese Training Course’ textbook  which meets the needs of Jordanian students in
learning Chinese. Every year more than 20 students of TAG-CI are granted
scholarships to study in Shenyang Normal University and other universities.
International Chinese Education is one of the majors of SNU, which has
cultivated many excellent international students.

Dr.
Yang Songfang first introduced key projects of TAG-CI such as Chinese
Proficiency Test, International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarships, New
China Studies Program, “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition, Summer
Camp to China, Educators Delegation to China, International Chinese Day, and
the like. She affirmed that many categories of scholarship and programs provide
students with opportunities to study Chinese language and culture in China,
experience China’s economic and social development and know about the real and
comprehensive China. Then she introduced the Chinese education in Jordan and
the cooperation between TAG-CI and local schools, Royal Court and Crown Prince
Foundation in Chinese teaching and projects. She said that with the deepening
of China-Jordan exchanges and cooperation in education, culture, economy and
business, about 400 Chinese students come to Jordan every year to study Arabic
and more and more Jordanian students are granted scholarships for further study
in China. The students and their parents are increasingly aware of the
promising prospect of learning Chinese language which will lead to many
opportunities for them. After that, she briefed the internalization and
Software College of SNU, hoping that the two universities can carry out
exchanges and cooperation in relevant fields in the future.

Ms.
Randa introduced the courses offered by TAG-CI and distributed the brochures of
TAG-CI to the leaders and officers present at the meeting.

For
his part, President Ismael Hinti briefed the meeting on the HTU; established by
Crown Prince Foundation in 2017,as a private higher education institution and
the only university located in King Hussein Business Park in Amman. He said
that the mission of HTU is to bridge the gap between the numbers of graduates
and their employment rate in technical fields. HTU features the combination of
talent cultivation, the changing needs of the industry and social development, aiming
at broadening the vision of students so that they can achieve a balance in
technical development, language competence and leadership and become
competitive talents not only in Jordan but also globally. He added that HTU
attaches great importance to language education. People used to “look to the
west”, but now the rapid development of China’s economy has attracted the
attention of people all over the world. Many enterprises mainly checked
students’ competence of English, French, German, etc. in recruitment interviews
before but now they consider students’ Chinese language competence. He hoped
that the students of HTU can learn Chinese and that HTU and SNU can have the
opportunity to carry out exchanges of teachers and students and cooperation in
a certain field.

Dr.
William mainly introduced the learning approach, students, exams, practical
programs and voluntary initiatives of HTU. He said that the foreign language
courses offered by HTU include English, French, German and Italian as elective
courses. He hoped to cooperate with TAG-CI to offer Chinese course. He invited
TAG-CI to give lectures on Chinese language and culture and key projects of
TAG-CI to the teachers and students at HTU in January 2023. From March 2023,
TAG-CI will officially start to offer Chinese course to the students at HTU.
The two sides will sign a cooperation agreement in Chinese language teaching in
a week.