Minsk State Linguistic University (MSLU) will open Belarus’ first Chinese language and culture department in the new academic year, according to MSLU Rector Natalya Baranova.
The department plans to enroll nearly 300 students. “We have long been preparing for this. We already have the lecturers and teaching staff for it. Today Chinese is taught in three different departments of the university, which will be joined into one,” said Baranova.
The new department will train teachers, translators, and specialists in intercultural communications, 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 for interpretation proficiency, a center of language to support website translation, and a center for Belarusian-Chinese comparative cultural linguistics and ethnography,” said Baranova.
“Belarus is expanding contacts with China in economy, art, culture, tourism. Therefore, there will be the demand for interpreters and translators,” she added.
“Students will receive a high-quality education thanks to cooperation 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.”
