Press releases

MINSK, 18 July (BelTA) – Minsk State Linguistic University (MSLU) will open the Chinese language and culture department in the new academic year, after the first term, MSLU Rector Natalya Baranova told BelTA.

The department is designed to enroll nearly 300 students. “We have long been preparing for this. We already have the lecturers and teaching staff for it. Today the Chinese language is taught in three different departments of the university. Thus they will be combined into one,” Natalya Baranova said. The department will have two chairs: theory and practice of the Chinese language and also speech studies and professional communication in Chinese.

The new department will train teachers, translators and specialists in intercultural communication in foreign economic relations, public relations and international tourism.

There are plans to set up research laboratories and centers at the department. “In the next five years, we are planning to set up a language lab of translation proficiency, the center of language support for websites and the center of the Belarusian-Chinese comparative cultural linguistics and ethnography,” the rector informed.

According to Natalya Baranova, setting up the new department is related to the need to improve the quality of foreign language skills of various categories of professionals. The country needs highly-qualified Chinese language teachers in the system of general secondary education and in the system of higher education and vocational education. “Belarus is expanding contacts with China in economy, art, culture, tourism. Therefore, there will be the demand for interpreters and translators,” she said.

“The students will receive high-quality education. For this purpose we will cooperate with the East China Normal University in Shanghai and foreign language universities in Beijing and Tianjin. They will help us with teaching staff while we grow as a young scientific and methodological school of the Chinese language,” Natalya Baranova added.