The Department of Foreign Languages evolved from the
college’s former Asian and African Language programs and
European Language programs.
The history of The Department of Foreign Languages dates
back to 1958, when the university launched its Persian language
program. By 1965 more language programs had been added to
the list. These included Tamil, Turkish, Spanish, Swahili,Portuguese,
Italian, Esperanto, Dutch, Urdu, Nepali, Bengali, Pashto,
Hindi, Singhalese, Lao, Tagalog (today known as Filipino),
Hausa, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Korean,
Vietnamese, Malay, Hungarian, some of which were first of
its kind or the only one taught in China. In 1965 there were
650 students studying in 30 different foreign language programs,
an achievement which qualified BBI, together with Peking University
and Beijing Foreign Studies University, to rank high as the
nation’s top training base for foreign language experts.
During the 1970s and 1980s Department of Foreign Languages
ran fifteen foreign language programs: Singhalese,Bengali,
Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Persian, Pashto, Urdu, Nepali,
Tamil, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Albanian.
In 1989 and 1990 the Department of Foreign Languages
selected from students who were in their third year in BBI’s
liberal arts programs to transfer to Department of Foreign
Languages’ new programs: 12 to study Esperanto and 4 to study
Persian. In 1990 and 1995, under the auspice ofthe Ministry
of Education, the university set up partnership programs with
China Radio International (CRI), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
the Foreign Language Press and China Book Import and Export
Corporation to recruit undergraduates for programs in Swahili,
Pashto,Tamil, Bengali and Nepali. The Ministry of Education
gave the university more independence in the recruiting process
and the students entered the university with a contract to
work with the partner organizations upon graduation. In February
2000, the Ministry of Education issued a document about setting
up some training centers for “minor languages” talents.
The International Communications College applied for being
one of them. After careful preparations, in April 2000, oral
tests and interviews were given to graduating high school
students applying for our programs in Japanese, Bengali, Nepali,
Pashto, Swahili, Persian, and Portuguese. 192 students finally
passed the exams and came to Department of Foreign Languages.
In October 2000, The Ministry of Education sent a group of
experts to evaluate our teaching work in minor languages,and
approved that The International Communications College be
a talent-training base of minor languages. And that paved
the way for our further development.
We have a bilingual teaching mode: Practical skills
in English is required for all minor language learners. In
their first two years in college Department of Foreign Languages
students are required to take English courses as well as one
of the languages they major in. Many of the Department of
Foreign Languages students are able to spend their third year
in a country where the language is spoken. In their senior
year The Department of Foreign Languages students are given
more independent time to take internships on or off campus.Currently
in the Department of Foreign Languages there are fourteen
teachers, among them five are professors or associate professors.Some
of the faculty members have got degrees from universities
overseas, while some others have got over a year’s overseas
work experience. The Department of Foreign Languages also
extends lectureship to more than 30 senior foreign language
experts outside the university.
The Department of Foreign Languages has signed agreement
with CRI on partnership programs in the nation’s needed foreign
languages. Since 2000, programs in Portuguese, Swahili, Persian,
Pashto, Bengali, Singhalese, Malay, Turkish, Italian, Spanish,
French, Dutch, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian, Portuguese,Japanese,
German and Hausa were added to the list of 34 foreign language
programs the college has run over years in history. The Department
of Foreign Languages aims at covering all foreign languages in
which CRI has services in the next three to five years.
Employment rate of the newly graduated is an important
measurement of a university’s success in preparing its students
for future careers. The Department of Foreign Languages is
dedicated to preparing its students for the fiercest competition
in the real world. It provides its students with a wide range
of exchange opportunities with other universities and foreign
embassies. Joint programs were initialed and implemented to
send The Department of Foreign Languages students abroad.
We have cooperation relations with many universities abroad,
such as Portugal East Foundation, Macao Engineering Institute,
Macao University, Language College of Daka University in Bangladesh,
Tokyo Women University in Japan, Leon University No.3, University
of Spain, University of Italy, University of Germany, Journalism
Institute of Moscow University of Russia, and Language Publication
Bureau of Malaysia. We regularily send students to study in
the country where the language is spoken.
We still have a long way to go in the training of highly-qualified,
creative and multi-skilled language talents. We will double
our effort to meet the challenges of the era and try to find
the best way toward success.
A show of
teaching achievements of In the studio with famous
anchors in minor language majors Bangladesh
