From August 23 to September 5, 2015, the 2015 summer camp of the Confucius Institute at Sofia, Bulgaria, sponsored by Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) and organized by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP), was successfully held in BFSU.

On the opening ceremony, Professor He Jing, Deputy Director of Office of Confucius Institutes BFSU, introduced BFSU and plan for curriculum and activities of the summer camp. She hoped that students could have wonderful experiences in the two-week trip. Later, Ms. Yana Shishkova, the Bulgarian group leader introduced the history and current situation of Chinese language learning in Bulgaria.

Participants of the camp are students from several middle schools in Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria, and this is their first time to take part in summer camp in China. Considering the suggestions of Bulgarian teachers, the Chinese Branch arranged tailored curriculum and activities for them.

For Chinese language courses, abundant practices were included, and the curriculum tries to connect with real life demands and current affairs in China. On September 3, students watched the live broadcast of Chinese military parade in the classroom with briefing on backgrounds and explanation of frequently used words offered by Chinese teachers. Ms. Yana Shishkova and the students all said this experience was very impressive because such learning materials are seldom provided in Bulgaria. After taking the Chinese language course, the students all took the HSK level III exam organized by Hanban.

Meanwhile, FLTRP invited many experienced teachers for cultural classes covering Chinese dancing, Taiji, cudgel, paper cutting, Opera facial masks and Chinese knots and organized students to watch classic Peking Opera at National Peking Opera Academy. As Chinese language learning resources is limited in Bulgaria, students all valued this trip greatly and got to know several Chinese cultural skills in a short period.

The two-week summer camp is short but fulfilling. With the good combination of lessons and practices, the students expressed their gratitude to the officers for their thoughtful arrangement and care. Most of them said they planned to study in China after graduating from senior high schools.

Bulgaria is an important country along the Silk Road Economic Belt. We believe that under the policy of “One Belt and One Road”, exchanges in the fields of politics, economy and humanities between Chinese and Bulgarian will increase and in the forthcoming future, these students will be a staunch force for friendship and cooperation between the two countries.