October 24, 2012
On 24 October 2012, Mr. Shen Zhifei, China’s Ambassador to Croatia,inspected the Confucius Institute run by SIFT at the University ofZagreb and was briefed by its co-directors on the recent progressand future plans for the Institute.
Ambassador Shen spoke very highly of the achievements made so farat the Confucius Institute. He pointed out that the inauguration ofthe Confucius Institute at the University of Zagreb was a majorstep forward on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of theestablishment of diplomatic relations between China and Croatia andwould further promote the friendly relationship between the twocountries. He said that the Confucius Institute would become animportant window on the Chinese language, history and culture,enabling people in both countries to learn from each other andexchange ideas. He also expressed his wish that the founding of theConfucius Institute at Zagreb would further strengthen bilateraltrade ties between the two countries.
Mr. Kresimir Jurak, co-director of the Confucius Institute on theCroatian side, gave a detailed account of its operation over thepast half year since its launch and its future plans in the yearsto come. Mr. Yan Lidong, co-director on the SIFT side, briefedAmbassador Shen on the work done by the two volunteer teachersselected and sent by SIFT. Ambassador Shen was impressed by thequality of teaching at the Confucius Institute, hoping that SIFTwould sent more qualified volunteer teachers of the Chineselanguage to work at the Institute in the near future.
Ambassador Shen also walked into the classroom to talk withstudents there. He encouraged students to work hard at learning theChinese language, culture and history, and invited them to visit,live and study in China when opportunities presented themselves,hoping that they would become a cultural envoy between the twocountries in the future.