The “One Belt and One Road” Public Course Series on Foreign Languages and Culture Project was launched on September 15th at the new building of the School of Foreign Languages.
The launching ceremony started at 10:00. After a short introduction of the guests, Gao Song, the vice president of Peking University (PKU), briefly introduced the project and its importance. He said that the Silk Road was a prosperous access to the world for China and vice versa. At present, language and culture are important factors in cross-cultural communication, and it’s essential to emphasize these aspects in education.
Then, Hussein Ibrahim, the educational counselor of the Embassy of Egypt in China, expressed his appreciation of this project and its value in cooperation between China and Egypt. After his speech, Ning Qi, dean of the School of Foreign Languages (SFL), introduced the project in detail. She explained that there are three reasons why SFL in PKU hosts the project: First, the SFL teaching resources are abundant and high quality; second, SFL believes language and culture are both important parts of the humanities; last but not least, the country needs to equip its people with non-common language skills and international perspectives.
In the end, He Yingjie, a graduate in Arabic language and literature, expressed his excitement about how students would benefit from this project by acquiring language skills and knowing about other cultures. After the speeches, teachers and guests triggered a ball with a digital sign to mark the launching of the project.
Written by: Zhong Xue
