On December 1, the 2012 China-EU Language Cooperation Seminar hosted by our school was held in our school, sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China and the European Commission, supported by the National Language Working Committee of China, and hosted by our school. More than 200 experts, scholars, government officials and higher education administrators from China and the EU gathered at BFSU to discuss cutting-edge and hot issues in the field of current China-EU language cooperation.

Hao Ping, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education of China, Ms. Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth of the European Commission, Yang Xueyi, Secretary of the Party Committee of our school, Han Zhen, President, Vice Presidents Zhong Meisun and Ma Yansheng, Li Yuming, Secretary of the Party Committee of Beijing Language and Culture University, Euronews Philippe Keira, Director of the Development Department, and others attended the opening ceremony of the seminar. The opening ceremony of the seminar was hosted by Ms. Zhang Xiuqin, Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchange of the Ministry of Education.

Hao Ping, Vice Minister of Education, said in his speech that the Chinese government attaches great importance to promoting language exchanges and cooperation with the EU. Both China and the EU also agree on the role that language diversity plays in promoting cross-cultural exchanges and enhancing mutual understanding between the people of China and Europe. Therefore, the two sides established the China-EU high-level people-to-people and cultural exchange mechanism in 2012, marking the official establishment of people-to-people and cultural exchanges as the third pillar of China-EU relations. The "China-EU Language Cooperation Seminar" has been successfully held for the third time since 2009. It has become an important carrier and good platform for people-to-people and cultural exchanges and educational cooperation between the two sides, and will continue to promote the in-depth development of people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and Europe.

Ms. Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth of the European Commission, said in her speech that both China and Europe regard language as a powerful tool to promote communication between people. The purpose of this seminar is to further promote multilingual communication. Further explore multilingual collaboration opportunities. Commissioner Vasiliu pointed out that language, education, culture and youth are interrelated. The convening of this seminar will promote the promotion of Chinese in Europe and the spread of EU official languages ​​​​in China, and promote China-Europe education, youth and cultural exchanges.

President Han Zhen said in his speech that Beijing Foreign Studies University, as the university with the most languages ​​in China, has fully opened 23 official languages ​​​​of EU countries, fully launched the "EU Language and Culture Teaching Research Platform", and has made great contributions to the development of China-EU relations. contribute. Beijing Foreign Studies University will continue to give full play to its disciplinary advantages, build a bridge of dialogue between China and the West, and make more efforts to integrate Chinese and foreign cultural blood and better realize the mission of the times "to let China understand the diverse world and let the world understand the changing China." More and greater contributions.

Professor Li Yuming, Secretary of the Party Committee of Beijing Language and Culture University, and Philippe Cayla, Director of the European News Development Department, delivered keynote speeches at the conference.

In the group discussions and closing speeches, more than 200 participants from China and Europe focused on "Strategies and Methods of Language Teaching", "Learning Mobility and Intercultural Competence", "Multilingual Education and Cultural Diversity", " They conducted heated and in-depth discussions on topics such as the promotion of Chinese in Europe and the spread of EU official languages ​​in China, and reached a broad consensus on language cooperation.

Before the opening of the meeting, Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Education Hao Ping held an informal meeting with Ms. Vassiliou, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Multilingualism. Director Zhang Xiuqin of the International Department of the Ministry of Education, President Han Zhen and Vice President Ma Yansheng of our school accompanied Vice Minister Hao Ping met with the guests.

On the morning of the opening of the conference, representatives from the European Union came to our school’s School of European Languages, Department of German, Department of French, and Department of Spanish and Portuguese to observe our school’s German-Chinese simultaneous interpretation classes, Polish interpretation, and French audio and video respectively. , Bulgarian audio and video, basic Italian, Spanish and Portuguese courses, and communicated with teachers and students of our school. The EU representatives spoke highly of the quality of EU language teaching in our school and expressed their admiration for the achievements our school has made in EU language teaching. Many representatives also put forward specific cooperation suggestions.

In April 2012, the first meeting of the China-EU High-Level People-to-People Exchange and Dialogue Mechanism was launched in Brussels. State Councilor Liu Yandong and European Commission Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Affairs Vasiliou signed the "China-EU High-Level People-to-People Exchange and Dialogue Mechanism." "Joint Declaration of a Meeting", under the framework of this mechanism, China and the EU agreed to jointly launch a series of follow-up actions in the fields of higher education and language cooperation. This seminar is the third seminar on China-EU language cooperation. It is a landmark event under the framework of the China-EU humanities mechanism. It is also a concrete practice to strengthen China-EU language cooperation and promote the development of language diversity in the world.

(Chen Zheng and Li Ping, International Office)