China to celebrate 60 years of Spanish Teaching

Spanish teaching is celebrating its 60th year anniversary with professors and students of Spanish language in China.

Spain and China were once isolated countries during the early decades of 20th century yet have become more attached to each other with the exchange of cultures and especially with the help of Spanish. During 1950's China welcomed professors and instructors from Spain and Latin America to teach Spanish.  

Current and former professors with the graduates of the last six decade came together to pay tribute to Spanish language in a school built for teaching Spanish to interpreters and diplomats who were directly related to Latin America and Spain that  a movement could not be disregarded in 1950’s.

Since then lots of things have changed, once there were no sources, books and texts even the teaching styles were different. The first group of teachers was mostly Spaniards yet during 1960’s more teachers came from Latin America. The Faculty of Spanish at Beijing University of Foreign Studies was the pioneer to accomplish Castilian – Mandarin dictionary that thousands of Chinese students have been using as a reference. The number of students who registered last year in Cervantes Institute, has increased to 4767 which is three times more than the number in 2006.

Spanish is a  promising and useful language in China after 60 years of hard work and moreover the business relations between Latin America have been increasing gradually so that the number of faculties that teach Spanish also has risen accordingly. Spanish is thought to be one of the most beneficial language in Asia as there has been a lack of interpreters who can translate from Mandarin to Spanish and vice versa.

The translator of Miguel Cervantes' Don Quijote, Dong Yansheng also emphasized the importance of Spanish language saying that it can only be possible to know the culture, the way the people think, to connect with an emotional link.

China diverse in culture and history, is willing to expand its emotional bonds with Spain and Latin America. Undoubtedly, Spanish will seem to be a favorite language for another sixty years.