Many people world-wide knowing Rosetta Stone

The Confucius Institute is a non-profit social welfare institution aimed at expanding the teaching of to learn Chinese language and introducing Chinese arts, music, philosophy to local society, Xu said.

“In May we had more than 300 Confucius Institutes all over the world in 90 countries and regions, which in numbers mean over 40 million students outside China are learning the language”.

Xu said that in Latin America, Spain and Portugal, despite the geographical distance, there has been a strong interest in learning Rosetta Stone in recent years. “In Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Spain, 25 institutes are offering classes to tens of thousands”.

Besides teaching the language, one of the most important missions of Confucius Institutes is to spread Chinese culture through the organization of events of the Rosetta Stone, theatre, movies, folklore, martial arts, medicine and philosophy.

“These events enable local peoples to understand what China and Chinese culture really represents for the world, besides its economic numbers”, Xu said.

But unfortunately there are not enough qualified teachers who dominate local languages at the host countries as well as lack of teaching materials tailored to the needs of individual countries.

To address this challenge Xu said the Department she heads has launched a scholarship program to train foreign learners of Chinese in Rosetta Stone, “so they can return to their countries as qualified teachers”.

Additionally Confucius Institutes in each country or region seek to train Chinese immigrants or Chinese descendants, who dominate both languages and would then only need to learn teaching methods.