Confucius Institute centre opens at CPIT

Confucius Institute centre opens at CPIT

A Confucius Institute Resource Centre, being opened in CPIT’s Rakaia building tomorrow night (15 March), will be an invaluable Chinese language resource for students and the local community.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker, Chinese Consular General Xiutian Tan and CPIT Chief Executive Kay Giles will attend the opening of the centre, which has been jointly developed by the Confucius Institute at the University of Canterbury (UC) and CPIT.

“The new centre will be an important resource, not only for students of our Chinese programmes but for schools in the eastern area and indeed anyone who is interested in Chinese language and culture. The centre will open with over 700 books, DVDs and posters, presented by the Confucius Institute at UC, with more to come,” CPIT Chinese programme leader Lubao Qi said.

The centre will help to create awareness of CPIT’s full time Chinese programmes, which have run for 24 years and are the only Chinese diploma and certificate level programmes in the South Island.

“Our programmes are recognised as very practical and intensive, particularly in terms of spoken Chinese. Many of our graduates go on to live and work in China and to help them get started we offer four scholarships each year to study in Shanghai and Lanzhou,” Qi said.

The Chinese Programme at CPIT and Confucius Institute at UC have a good relationship and last year worked together to offer the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) standardized test of Mandarin Chinese proficiency.

ENDS

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