Education

Director serves Spanish fans worldwide with Cervantes

By Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-14 08:00

Francisco Moreno, academic director for Instituto Cervantes, gave a talk in Beijing recently. Photos Provided to China Daily

Left: Students listen to a presentation given by Moreno about the Spanish language in Asia. Right: The Cervantes Institute provides courses and activities to anyone wanting to learn.

Getting your fix of Chinese food when in Chile or Peru might be tricky unless the local word "chifa" is in your vocabulary, but you won't run across this word in Spain.

Such is the complexity of the Spanish language that Cervantes Institute Academic Director Francisco Moreno, who is in charge of educative programs in the 73 Instituto Cervantes centers worldwide, flew to Beijing at the end of August to explain the variety of the language to Spanish-savvy Chinese in the capital.

What brought you to Beijing?

I gave a presentation on Spanish in Asia at Peking University where I talked about the difference between Spanish spoken in Spain and Latin American countries. I will also participate in training programs for teachers at the institute.

What makes Instituto Cervantes Beijing different from other branches in the world?

Instituto Cervantes has centers in 42 countries, all of which provide Spanish courses, cultural activities and library facilities.

However, in the past four years, Beijing has grown to become the second biggest center of all Instituto Cervantes with some 4,000 students and 50 teachers. The biggest is in Moscow. When it was firstly established four years ago, there were 1,168 students.

The uniqueness of the Beijing center is that we put great emphasis on the first level of language learning because most Chinese only have basic knowledge about the language since they had little access to Spanish before entering university or even later in life.

In Brazil, for example, because of the linguistic similarity between Portuguese and Spanish, more intermediate and high-level courses are designed.

Apart from language courses, what other activities are offered?

Hundreds of cultural events are organized every year at the institute. The upcoming ones are that the center is going to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the independences of Argentina, Mexico and Colombia by showing films produced by these countries. Exhibitions and cultural conferences are also organized.

The library is another highlight. It has more than 10,000 books in Spanish and is backed by a sophisticated network. If a student needs a book, which for example is in the New York center, we will find it and ship it here.

Why do you think Spanish is relevant to Chinese people?

What makes us appealing are two points. The first is culture - music and literature from Spain and Latin America is huge around the world.

Another point is that Spanish is a useful language when it comes to international relationships. Chinese has great business interests in American countries such as in the US and Peru where people speak Spanish. In order to unblock language barriers, more and more Chinese feel the urge to learn Spanish.

Do you have expansion plans in Beijing?

My biggest challenge and ambition is to introduce Spanish to secondary and elementary schools as selective classes in five to 10 years' time. At present, English is the only foreign language taught in most schools. I want to offer students the possibility to study another foreign language in Beijing.

Instituto Cervantes has only one center in China, which was founded in 2006 in Beijing. We are waiting for the approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to open another in Shanghai.

Describe what you do in your job?

I bridge the gap between Spanish speaking countries and the rest of the world. It sounds tough, but it is interesting. I visit centers around the world to facilitate them to issue certificates to students taking language programs and design different programs to educate students and train teachers.

Do you have any tips for Chinese learning Spanish?

Be patient, as there is no shortcut when learning a foreign language. The real trick to learning any language is to find the process enjoyable.

China Daily

(China Daily 09/14/2010)