Confucius Institute at Russian State University for the Humanities

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4.5.2 Confucius Institute at Russian State University for the Humanities

The Confucius Institute at Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) was opened in September 2007. This is the first CI to be opened in Moscow and one of the first CIs in Russia. The RSUH staff wanted to open a language center to provide Mandarin courses. It turned out that the Chinese part had the same initiative, that is why they decided to cooperate and instead of “some” center open the Confucius Institute.¹⁶² The partner university in China is Beijing University of International Business and Economics¹⁶³.

According to the information on the official website of the institute, it has created excellent conditions for the in-depth study of Chinese language and culture. And every year more and more people are willing to become its part. In the beginning only few people were interested in learning Chinese, but this situation has changed.¹⁶⁴ Now at the beginning of each semester there are a lot of those who want to study Mandarin, though of course the number of those who really decide to do it and ‘fight to the bitter end’ is much less. For example, this year at the beginning of the new semester about 100 people came to attend the informational meeting, last year the number was 300 people.¹⁶⁵

Speaking about the age of those who attend the courses offered by the CI, it varies widely. There are university students, adults and even school-children. At the begging the CI at RSUH accepted only high-school children, however now it is constantly lowering the age.¹⁶⁶

There are many sources where people can get the information about the CI at RSUH. First of all it is, of course, the official website of the university¹⁶⁷. It is easy to find all information about the CI there. Besides, the CI is already familiar to many people, and if someone decides that he/she wants to learn Chinese, they know where to go. The CI at RSUH also organizes various events related to Mandarin, Chinese culture, history etc. Usually they are for free, and anyone can take part in them. For example, every

162 Interview with the CI at RSUH director from the Russian part, Moscow, Russia, February, 2015.

163 Beijing University of International Business and Economics (對外經濟貿易大學 duiwai jingji maoyi daxue) – is a national public research university specialized in economics, finance, management, law and foreign languages established in 1951 in Beijing.

164 Институт Конфуция РГГУ: коротко о главном [Электронный ресурс] Российско-китайский учебно-научный центр Институт Конфуция РГГУ. – Режим доступа: http://www.confucius-institute.ru/institute/mission/

165 Interview with the CI at RSUH director from the Russian part, Moscow, Russia< February, 2015.

166 Ibid.

167 http://www.confucius-institute.ru/

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Tuesday it holds an event called “tea parties”: people are gathering at the CI and drink varieties of teas, discuss their origin and enjoy pleasant company. Thus they have an opportunity to become a part of ancient Chinese drinking tea ceremony, learn more about Chinese culture and maybe find new friends.

The CI at RSUH provides all variety of Mandarin courses: from basic level to advanced. It should be noted that the group is formed only if there are 10 people who can/want attend this or that class:

 Chinese (basic level) 漢語 (初級)

 Chinese (intermediate level) 漢語 (中級)

 Chinese (advanced level) 漢語 (高級)

 Calligraphy (書法)

 Mandarin conversation practice (basic level) 漢語口語強化班 (初級) (the courses are taught by Russian-speaking and Chinese-speaking teachers)

 Mandarin conversation practice (upper-intermediate level) 漢語口語強化

班 (中高級) (courses are taught by Chinese-speaking teachers)

 HSK preparation (levels 3, 4, 5, 6) (HSK 培訓班: 3, 4, 5, 6 級)

 HSK mock tests, error correction and test analysis (HSK 模擬考試與學生

偏誤分析)

 Chinese movies, discussion of contents and vocabulary

 Business Chinese (basic level) 商務漢語 (基礎班)

 Business Chinese (advanced level) 商務漢語 (提高班)

 Business letter writing (basic level) 漢語應用文寫作 (基礎班)

 Chinese writing (advanced level) 漢語高級寫作

 Brief history of Chinese culture (lectures) 中國文化系列講座

 Chinese economics and trade 中國經濟與貿易

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 Introduction to Classical Chinese language (wenyan) 文言文入門¹⁶⁸

Speaking about the textbooks used during the classes, it should be noted that one of them (for the basic level group) was designed by the joint efforts of the RSUH professors, the CI at RSUH professors and Heilongjiang University professors. The majority of other textbooks were published by various famous China’s universities, e.g.

Beijing Language and Culture University¹⁶⁹, Beijing University of International Business and Economics etc.¹⁷⁰

Courses for the basic and intermediate levels learners are usually taught by Russian-speaking teachers, while the upper-intermediate and advanced levels are in most cases taught by Chinese-speaking teachers.

Courses usually take place on the weekdays in the evenings, starting from 5 pm onward. It is done out of convenience, because the majority of students have classes or work during the day. However, there might be exclusions, if all of the group members agree to have courses in the morning or/and on Saturday.¹⁷¹

The CI at RSUH also provides seminars for those who teach Chinese language, where professors can discuss various issues related to Chinese language, history, culture and share their experience. established in 1962. It has the main aim of teaching the Chinese language and culture to foreign students.

However, it also takes Chinese students specializing in foreign languages and other relevant subjects of humanities and social sciences, and trains teachers of Chinese as a foreign language. It used to be the only institute of this kind in China.

170 Textbooks. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.confucius-institute.ru/materials/tutorials/ (Учебные пособия [Электронный ресурс]. Российско-китайский учебно-научный центр Институт Конфуция РГГУ.

– Режим доступа: http://www.confucius-institute.ru/materials/tutorials/

171 The author of the study received this information during the informational meeting at the CI at RSUH in February 2015.

172 Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival (春節 chunjie; 華人新年 huaren xinnian) is an important Chinese festival celebrated at the turn of the Chinese calendar. Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally run from Chinese New Year's Eve, the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar, to

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which students of the CI and all those who just want to join the event learn more about this holiday which has a very important place in hearts of Chinese people.

The CI at RSUH also provides people with so called Confucius Institute scholarship. As it has been already mentioned in Chapter 2¹⁷³, the CI provides various types of scholarships. All of them can be found at the CI at RSUH.

For example, the CI at RSUH as well as any other Confucius Institute in order to encourage its students to study more heartily organizes annual trips to China in summer.

For example, this year the students as well as those who do not undertake courses at the CI have an opportunity to go to a summer camp in Beijing organized by joint efforts of the CI at RSUH and its partner-university Beijing University of International Business and Economics. There are 25 free places, meaning that those who are lucky enough to get them will have to pay only for the plane tickets, and the rest of their expenses would be covered by scholarship. However, only those who are taking courses at the CI at RSUH have the opportunity to get a free place. Those who cannot go for free will have to pay 600 RMB (about 97 USD) per day. The summer camp will last for 13 days and includes various activities: Chinese classes and cultural experience.¹⁷⁴

In December 2013, during the 8^th World Confucius Institute Conference held in Beijing the CI at RSUH was honored as a 2013 Confucius Institute of the Year.This title is considered to be the highest form of recognition of each individual Confucius Institute by Hanban. Evaluation of the Confucius Institutes is done on the basis of several criteria:

the dynamics of development, the quality of training, diversity of the courses and events, educational, scientific and methodological activities, etc. The CI at RSUH was also honored to become “Best Coordinator”. According to its director from the Russian part, these two awards play an important role in everyday’s life of the CI. They gave a possibility to improve the capabilities of the institute, to increase the number of students, and also an opportunity to share this positive experience with other Confucius Institutes.

Speaking about the selection criteria, the following points should be noted: room space, the number of courses, the number of events and activities; the number of students;

the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, making the festival the longest in the Chinese calendar. The first day of the New Year falls between January 21 and February 20.

173 See Chapter 2, Paragraph 2.4.1 (Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters))

174 Confucius Institute at Russian State Humanitarian University and the Beijing University of International Business and Economics to organize a summer camp in Beijing. (2015, April 30). Retrieved from http://www.confucius-institute.ru/news/2267/ (Институт Конфуция РГГУ и Университет Бизнеса и Экономики (Пекин) организуют летний лагерь в Пекине! [Электронный ресурс]. Российско-китайский учебно-научный центр Институт Конфуция РГГУ. – 2015. – 30 Апреля. – Режим доступа:

http://www.confucius-institute.ru/news/2267/)

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participation in interuniversity activities; participation in Hanban activities; reporting system etc.¹⁷⁵ Continuous efforts to improve the educational process, working out of its own textbooks, trainings of the teaching staff, weekly courses on history, geography and tea culture, seminars on economic and political cooperation between Russia and China - all these steps turned the scale in favor of this particular CI, and it eventually gained that high status.¹⁷⁶