The Confucius Institute at Eötvös Loránd University was co-built by Beijing Foreign Studies University and Eötvös Loránd University on December 7, 2006. It is the first Confucius Institute in Hungary and is now becoming the center of training local Chinese teachers for 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
The Confucius Institute at Eötvös Loránd University is a comprehensive Confucius Institute that integrates Chinese language teaching, cultural promotion and academic research.
Main works include: first, offering Chinese language and other types of training courses to promote Chinese language teaching and learning; second, organizing all kinds of cultural activities to promote the Chinese culture at various levels through extensive methods; third, combining the advantages of Sinology in Hungary and other social groups to develop researches on modern China; fourth, using language and culture as the bridge to improve the development of the culture exchange between China and Hungary.
Since the establishment of the Confucius Institute at Eötvös Loránd University, besides adult classes, Chinese language teaching courses have been offered in 27 Hungary colleges, middle and primary schools, in order to teach and promote the Chinese language.
At present, there are 43 native Chinese teachers and over 3,000 registered students in the Institute. And there are 33 relative schools in 10 key cities nationwide.
These schools offer tailored one-on-one Chinese language courses for Hungary government agencies, companies and Chinese companies and agencies in Hungary.
In order to improve the quality of Chinese language teaching, Confucius Institute at Eötvös Loránd University regularly holds Chinese language teaching seminars to provide a platform for full-time teachers and volunteers to exchange teaching experiences.
In addition, in order to meet the need of Hungarians to know traditional Chinese culture, the Institute also offers courses to teach Tai Chi, calligraphy, paper-cutting, Chinese cuisine cooking and traditional Chinese knotting, etc.
At present, Confucius institute holds HSK and YCT tests in Hungary. With the idea of combining teaching and examination, it actively uses the testing resources of Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) to take class test, mid-term examination and graduation test for students.
The Confucius Institute at Eötvös Loránd University upholds the belief of “language is the carrier of cultural promotion”. Besides Chinese language teaching, it also sets sport, art, food and folk art groups centering on teachers and volunteers. Teachers give full play to their expertise and organize various cultural activities.
In important activities, such as “Confucius institute Day”, “Loránd University Day” and “Museum Day”, they will hold exhibitions of paintings and calligraphy, tea ceremony display, Tai Chi show and calligraphy performances and experience sessions.
These activities enjoy great popularity among Hungarians.
In the area of academic research, taking advantage of the rich resources in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature in Loránd University, the Confucius Institute has become the research center of modern China in Hungary. Under the lead of the Chinese Director, professor Hao Qingxin, the Institute has also compiled the first Chinese teaching materials in Hungary—Hungarian Chinese textbook. And now reference books, such asChinese-Hungarian DictionaryandHungarian-Chinese Dictionaryare being compiled.
After 8 years of efforts, the Confucius Institute at Eötvös Loránd University has become the authoritative center of Chinese culture studies. Foreign director Hao Qingxin was awarded “Advanced Individual” in 2011 and the Institute was awarded “Advanced Confucius Institute” in 2007, 2011 and 2012.
On November 4, 2014, in order to meet the demand for more excellent Chinese teachers in Central and Eastern European countries, “The Training Center of Chinese Language Teachers for Central and Eastern Europe” was established. It is an innovative way that will train local Chinese teachers for 16 Central and Eastern European countries.
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe and also the bridge between China and Central and Eastern Europe for culture exchange.
In the next five years, the Institute at Eötvös Loránd will further promote Chinese language teaching in primary and middle schools, increasing the number of middle schools that offer Chinese courses to 20, which means that there is at least one middle school offering Chinese courses in every big city. There will be 600 to 700 Hungarian middle students learning Chinese language every year. While for primary schools, in order to teach Chinese language to pupils aged between 10 years old to 14 years old , the number of primary schools that offer Chinese courses will increase to 5.
The number of Hungarians learning Chinese is increasing, as a result of cultural exchange and as well as economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. A lot of young Hungarians’ passion for learning Chinese originates in the conception of reality.
Therefore, during the process of developing Chinese language teaching in universities, the Confucius Institute at Eötvös Loránd University will widen the scope of teaching to attract more students majoring in science and engineering to study Chinese language, thus will provide human resources for Chinese companies and factories invested in Hungary.
At present, Confucius Institute at Eötvös Loránd University has offered Chinese language courses in 8 universities and made these courses credit courses. And it plans to offer Chinese language courses in 10 universities in the next 3 years, in order to expand the scope of Chinese language teaching and cultural activities.
To attract people of all walks of lives to learn Chinese language, the Confucius Institute at Eötvös Loránd University will continually develop interest classes of Chinese language studying, namely, free Chinese classes for adults.
The Confucius Institute will actively run “The Training Center of Chinese Language Teachers for Central and Eastern Europe” and play a positive role in promoting Chinese language teaching in Hungary and even in the Central and Eastern Europe.
Address: ELTE Konfuciusz Intézet Budapest, 1088 Múzeum krt. 4/F
Contacts: Foreign Director Hao Qingxin (Hamar Imre), Chinese Director Li Min
（As of December 31, 2014）
