(Director-General Xu Lin Delivering Remarks)

On September 8, 2010, the Chinese Embassy held a reception to greet the 92 teaching assistants from all parts of China who are in UK to teach mandarin. Minister Chen Xiaodong attended the reception and delivered a speech. Special guests, including Madame Xu Lin, Director-General of Hanban, Susannah Simon, Director of the Joint International Unit for Education, Employment and Social Affairs, Olga Stanojlovic, Director of Schools in Education, British Council and Simon Martin, HSBC Head of Group Corporate Sustainability, attended the event and made remarks. The reception was chaired by Minister Counsellor Tian Xiaogang of the Education Section of the Embassy.

(Minister Chen Xiaodong Delivering Remarks)

In his speech Chen Xiaodong greeted the mandarin teaching assistants on behalf of Ambassador Liu Xiaoming and wished them a happy Teacher’s Day. He encouraged them to work with a high sense of mission and responsibility, teach through entertainment with a spirit of exploration and creativity, further motivate the enthusiasm of people in all circles of the British society in learning mandarin, and promote the Chinese culture and extensively introduce the country’s national conditions and developments while teaching the language. Chen also hoped that the teaching assistants would be open-minded in learning to make in-depth study in the advanced teaching ideas and work methods in UK and to acquire extensive knowledge of the British society, and that they would take the good experiences and methods back to China and apply them in their teaching work in the future.

Madame. Xu Lin, Director-General of Hanban, who was in Britain for the 2010 Joint Conference of European Confucius Institutes, made remarks to encourage the teaching assistants to overcome all the difficulties in working and living abroad, to familiarize themselves with the local environment as soon as possible, to achieve the value of their life in mandarin teaching and promotion of Chinese culture and to help the British people know more about China in their communications with the local public.

(Director Simon Making Remarks)

Susannah Simon, Director of the Joint International Unit for Education, Employment and Social Affairs, Olga Stanojlovic, Director of Schools in Education, British Council and Simon Martin, HSBC Head of Group Corporate Sustainability, respectively made remarks, fully recognizing and commending the work of mandarin teaching assistants in the UK over the years and expressing the willingness to continuously support and promote mandarin teaching and promotion of the Chinese Culture in UK and further enhance the mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

(Chen Shourong Making Remarks)

Chen Shourong, who participated in the mandarin teaching assistant programme for the second time, made remarks on behalf of all the teaching assistants. She said that as a teaching assistant, it is both an honour and a responsibility to disseminate abroad the profound and extensive Chinese language and culture, and that all the teaching assistants will overcome difficulties with their enthusiasm and wisdom, work hard in disseminating the Chinese culture, promote the cultural exchanges between China and UK and serve as a bridge for the friendship of the two peoples.

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The China-UK language teaching assistant programme was launched in 1987, when the Education Section of the Chinese Embassy in UK selected some Britons to teach English in China as teaching assistants. Since 2001, the programme developed into a two-way cooperation, that is, some teaching assistants are also selected from China to teach mandarin in UK primary and secondary schools. The number of mandarin teaching assistants has increased from the 11 to 96 in 2008. After arriving in Britain, the assistants will teach for one year in dozens of primary and secondary schools in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Hanban and HSBC have provided pre-job trainings and funds for the mandarin teaching assistant programme.