[photopress:MBA_confucius.jpg,full,alignright]Canada’s Dawson College, Sherbrooke University and Beijing Normal University have launched the Confucius Institute in Quebec which aims to promote the teaching of the language and culture of China within the French-speaking province and eastern Canada.
The Confucius Institute, the third of its kind in Canada, will provide training to entrepreneurs wishing to do business in China and to individuals interested in acquiring knowledge about China. The other two Confucius Institutes are respectively affiliated to the British Columbia Institute of Technology and the University of Waterloo.
Interesting that the French have a similar system with Alliance Francaise which promotes French language and culture outside France.
The Alliance was created in Paris on July 21, 1883 by a group of eminent men, including the scientist Louis Pasteur, the diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps and the writer Jules Verne.
More than 440,000 students learn French at one of the centers run by the Alliance with 1,071 locations in 133 different countries.
China will soon catch up. It is estimated that by the year 2010, more than 100 million people will be studying Chinese worldwide.
Source: China.org.cn