On December 7th, Chinese President Xi Jinping was invited to visit Saudi Arabia. Over 100 young Mandarin-Chinese learners from Saudi Arabia wrote to President Xi, sharing their feelings of love for learning Chinese language and culture.
President Xi, in his written response to the Saudi youth, encouraged them to enhance understandings and friendship with Chinese youth, so as to promote the China-Arab relationship and contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.
Among the Saudi youth, Arwa Mohammed Alahdal, a Saudi participant from the ECNU International Chinese Teacher Scholarship Online Training Program, just completed the Saudi online Chinese language learning program organized by ECNU and was deeply encouraged by the President Xi’s letter of reply.
Arwa Mohammed Alahdal
As a graduate of King Abdulaziz University Business School, Alahdal is passionate about Chinese culture and language, and has been trying to learn Mandarin-Chinese on her own. This June, when she saw the news that the Center for Language Education and Cooperation of the Ministry of Education would launch an International Chinese Teacher Scholarship Online Training Program in Saudi Arabia, she immediately registered for the online Chinese program of ECNU to prepare for HSK.
"My Chinese improved a lot after participating in this program because the teaching methods were interesting and the lessons were very easy to understand", said Alahdal, adding that she would definitely prefer ECNU to continue her studies in the future.
According to Vice President Gu Hongliang, ECNU has been cooperating with the Saudi Arabian government and enterprises for as long as 15 years, and has trained a great amount of young talents from the Saudi Arabia who are proficient in Mandarin-Chinese and know about Chinese society and culture. After returning to Saudi Arabia, many of them have worked in local government departments and Chinese enterprises to boost cooperation and trade with China, playing a positive role in promoting cultural exchange and mutual learning between both sides.
ECNU is one of the first-batch universities in China to cooperate with the Saudi government and launch the "Saudi Government Scholarship" program. Since the signing of the agreement in 2007, the university has enrolled about 220 Saudi Arabian students, including more than 70 of whom were granted the scholarship.
Huang Meixu, Director of the International Education Center of ECNU, spoke about the effective international exchange programs between students of China and Saudi Arabia, "Saudi students are full of interest in Chinese, and many of them also study undergraduate majors such as communication engineering and international economics and trade at ECNU. Whether it was the Saudi soccer team that fought bravely on the field, or the dazzling booths and highly ethnic performances at the International Cultural Festival, these are all unforgettable memories for teachers and students."
ECNU International Cultural Festival Saudi Arabian Booth
2011 ECNU International Cultural Festival Saudi students' traditional dance performance
Saudi student soccer team
In 2010, Saudi students from ECNU served the Saudi pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo as volunteers to welcome Chinese and foreign visitors, serving as a bridge of friendship between China and Saudi Arabia.
In November 2013, Dr. Saleh, then-Cultural Counsellor of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in China, visited ECNU and attended the opening ceremony of the 7th International Cultural Festival. He said that ECNU was the first university in Shanghai to sign an agreement with the Saudi Embassy in China and that he looked forward to a long-term and fruitful cooperation between the two parties. These exchanges range from student training to cooperation in research projects.
In 2015 and 2016, ECNU enrolled more than 30 Saudi students to strengthen their proficiency in Mandarin-Chinese studies. Although most of these students started from scratch, they were able to significantly improve their language skills in a short period of time, passing HSK level 4-5 within a year, and thus continued their undergraduate studies in China. The matriculation base cooperation model provides students with targeted, high-quality courses that enable Saudi students with a solid language foundation to better start their professional studies at the undergraduate level.
In June 2022, despite the impact of Covid-19, ECNU launched the International Chinese Teacher Scholarship Online Training Program organized by the Center for Education Language and Cooperation of the Ministry of Education and HSK in the Saudi region, enrolling and training 88 students from top Saudi universities such as King Abdulaziz University. The school has organized a team of excellent teachers and services to create the HSK standard and Chinese culture courses that are suitable for Saudi students' learning styles. At the same time, they help students improve their Mandarin-Chinese language skills and expand on the breadth of their cultural knowledge through diverse and interactive online activities.
Source: International Education Center of ECNU
Copy editor: Philip Nash | Editor: Wicky Xu
