刘利

北京语言大学校长

很高兴参加2019 年国际中文教育大会。我谨代表北京语言大学，以及参与孔子学院建设和国际中文教育的中方院校，对大会的召开表示热烈的祝贺！

北语素有“小联合国”的美誉，是中国创办的唯一一所以教授外国学生中国语言文化为主要职能的大学。建校近60 年来，北语始终坚持“德行言语、敦睦天下”的校训，秉持“爱国担当、开放包容”的理念，开拓进取，改革创新，聚焦中文教育主业，致力中国文化传播，累计培养了全球180 多个国家和地区近20 万名精通中文、熟悉中国的留学生，其中既有像哈萨克斯坦总统托卡耶夫这样的政界精英，也有像诺贝尔物理学奖得主埃里克康奈尔这样的科学大家，还有上万名从事中国语言文化教学研究的各国英才，以及无数从事商务、外交等对华交往工作的各类优秀人才，为促进中外人文交流、增进中外人民友谊，推进世界文明发展作出了积极贡献，也彰显了北语的中国精神和世界情怀。

孔子学院面向全球开展中文教育，以语言为桥，融汇中外文化，沟通人民心灵，受到各国民众热烈欢迎，成为世界认识中国的重要窗口。目前，北语已与世界五大洲13 个国家、20所大学合作设立了孔子学院，多年来为成千上万海外中文学习者提供了优质服务。通过参与孔子学院建设，北语获益良多，实现了从留学生来华教育为主到来华留学教育与走出去办学并重的双向办学格局，完善了面向国际社会需求的中外教育学科体系，强化了国别和区域化的教师培养、教材研发、教法研究等中文教育的核心能力，深化了与中外大学之间的学生互换、学者互访、学科共建等多领域合作，提升了学校的综合办学能力，极大提高了学校的声誉和影响力。

在开展国际中文教育、参与孔子学院建设的过程，中我们深刻感受到当前世界各国民众学习中文、了解中国的热情持续高涨，个性化、差异化、多样化的中文学习需求日益增多。对孔子学院等各级各类中文教育机构提出了新挑战，也为统筹办学资源、扩大办学规模、提高办学水平创造了新机遇。

作为以中文教育为主要任务的大学，北语深感责任重大。我们将更加自觉地把孔子学院建设作为学校创建中国特色世界一流语言大学的重要举措，并列入学校长远发展规划。健全完善人才培养体系，做大做强教师教育平台，聚焦高质量专职中文教师培养，为孔子学院提质增效提供有力的人才保障。为进一步支持孔子学院建设，我们在深入开展调查研究、广泛征求意见的基础上，近期拟与多家合作伙伴联合发起成立以支持孔子学院建设为主要职能的国际性民间公益教育基金会，以便进一步发挥中外院校办学主体作用，吸引中外学校、企业、社会组织和个人等广泛参与，拓展办学资金来源渠道，夯实孔子学院建设和国际中文教育事业的社会基础和民意基础。

中国国家主席习近平先生指出：“孔子学院属于中国，也属于世界。”北语著名校友、埃塞俄比亚总统穆拉图题词：“北语是中国的，也是世界的。”办好新时代的孔子学院，推进建设国际中文教育事业，是北语的职责和使命，也是北语创建世界一流语言大学的助推器。我们将秉持初心、牢记使命，再接再厉、努力奋斗，为推动世界多元多彩的文明发展和构建人类命运共同体的伟大事业做出新的更大的贡献。

Liu Li

President of Beijing Language and Culture University

It’s my great pleasure to attend the 2019 International Chinese Language Education Conference. On behalf of Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU),and Chinese universities engaged in the construction of the Confucius Institute and international Chinese language education, I would like to extend my warm congratulations on the opening of the conference.

Known as the Mini-United Nations,BLCU is the only university of its kind in China that specializes in offering Chinese language and culture courses to foreign students. In the past 57 years since its founding, BLCU has always adhered to the spirit of the school motto, “virtuous language harmonize the world”, and the philosophy of “patriotism, responsibility, openness, and inclusiveness”. Committed to reform and innovation, and constantly forging ahead,BLCU is specialized in Chinese language education and the spread of Chinese culture. So far, the university has trained about 200,000 foreign students from 180-plus countries and regions who are proficient in Chinese language and familiar with Chinese culture. Among them, include political elites like Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakhstan, scientists like Eric Cornell,Nobel laureate in Physics, tens of thousands of talents from various countries engaged in Chinese language and culture teaching and research, and countless talents for exchanges with China in business, tourism, and diplomacy. All of them have made positive contributions to promoting people-to-people and cultural exchanges, enhancing friendship between Chinese and peoples from other countries, and promoting the development of world civilization. Besides, they also showcase the Chinese spirit and global vision of BLCU.

The Confucius Institute offers Chinese language education globally, takes language as a bridge to integrate Chinese and foreign cultures, and connect people’s hearts. It has been warmly received by people from all countries and has become an important window for the world to know China. At present, BLCU has set up the Confucius Institute jointly with 20 universities in 13 countries on five continents, providing excellent services to thousands of overseas Chinese language learners over the years.BLCU has benefited a lot from setting up the Confucius Institute. It has formed a twoway school-running pattern that focuses on both education of foreign students in China and school-running’s going global, and improved the Chinese and foreign education discipline systems facing the needs of the international community, strengthened the core Chinese education competence, including teacher training, textbook development,and teaching method research in different countries and regions. It has deepened the cooperation with Chinese and foreign universities in various fields such as student and scholar exchange and subject construction. All these measures have improved BLCU’s overall capacity of school-running and greatly boosted the reputation and influence of BLCU.

While developing international Chinese language education and building the Confucius Institute, we deeply feel that people in the world are more eager to learn Chinese as well as to know about China and there is an increasing demand for international Chinese language education that is personalized, differentiated, and diversified.This not only poses new challenges to Chinese educational institutions at all levels like the Confucius Institute, but also creates new opportunities for coordinating resources to expand the scale of school-running and to improve the quality of school.

As a university with Chinese language education as its main task, BLCU feels a great responsibility. We will more consciously take building the Confucius Institute as an important measure for BLCU to create a world-class language university with Chinese characteristics, and include it in BLCU’s long-term development plan.We will improve the talent training system,make teacher training platform bigger and stronger, focus on the training of high-quality full-time Chinese teachers, and provide an enough excellent talents for the Confucius Institute’s improvement of quality and efficiency. After investigations and consultations, we plan to jointly establish an international non-governmental public welfare education foundation sponsored by various partners in the near future to support the building of the Confucius Institute. Then Chinese and foreign universities can further play their leading roles and we can attract more Chinese and foreign universities,enterprises, social organizations and individuals, obtain more funds for school-running, and consolidate the social and public foundation for the Confucius Institute and international Chinese language education.

Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out that the Confucius Institute not only belongs to China, but also to the whole world.Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome Wirtu,notable alumnus of BLCU, inscribed that BLCU belongs to China and it also belongs to the world. To run the Confucius Institute well in the new era and to promote international Chinese language education are not only the responsibility but the mission of BLCU. We will remain true to our original aspiration, keep our mission firmly in mind,and spare no effort to make greater contributions to the development of diverse and colorful civilizations in the world and the great cause of building a community with a shared future for mankind.