India will soon have the first Confucius classroom opened in Kolkata to meet the increasing demand for learning Chinese language and culture among people.
“Not only businessmen, but young students also want to learn Chinese. Understanding the language without understanding the culture will not be of much help and that is why we need this classroom,” said Charisma Saraff, principal of the School of Chinese Language.
The Chinese government-approved Confucius classrooms will be able to accommodate 800 students and the classes will tentatively begin from the middle of 2017. The Chinese government will send 10-15 teachers from China to teach Chinese language.
“Confucius is a way of life. Most people in China do not follow any religion, they just follow a way of life as part of their culture. We are trying to promote that. Not just language, but we will also teach culture, literature, geography and other aspects of life in China,” Saraff added.
The Chinese consulate organised an education exhibition in Kolkata where 30 leading Chinese universities participated. One of the participants was Tsinghua University, which is ranked among top 10 universities globally. The two-day exhibition was organized to strengthen ties between the two countries in the field of education.
