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By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 04:56 p.m. EDT, May 21, 2008
The University of Akron is the third university in Ohio to win a Confucius Institute from the People's Republic of China.
UA announced this week that it is to receive a $100,000 grant, two fully funded instructors in Chinese and a 3,000-volume library to promote the Chinese language and culture.
David Ayers, director of the UA's office of international programs, said the award will enhance the university's efforts to teach college students and the public and possibly to help teachers instruct students in kindergarten through high school about the world's most populous country.
''It is a nice carrot,'' Ayers said. ''We're kind of feeling our way on what our priorities should be.''
Since China opened its doors to the world in 1982, it has become the United States' second-largest trading partner and the U.S. has become China's top export destination, according to the Census Bureau.
For the last four years, China has been building goodwill by funding nonprofit institutes named for the great Chinese philosopher in universities around the world.
China's Ministry of Education estimates that by 2010 as many as 200 institutes will help train 100 million people worldwide in Chinese as a foreign language while bolstering business ties, promoting faculty and student exchanges and publicizing the Chinese culture.
UA became the 42nd university in the United States to get an institute.
It will receive $100,000 to administer the program for each of the next five years and two instructors whose expenses will be fully paid by the Chinese government, plus the library of books, tapes and other resources about China.
The institute will help UA expand its Chinese language program, which started two years ago and now has 35 students.
The institutes partner U.S. universities with counterparts in China. In UA's case, that will be Henan University in Kaifeng, in the central province that also is named Henan. With 100 million people, it is the most populous province in China.
UA has had a student exchange agreement with Henan University for the last 10 years, Ayers said.
Over that decade, a dozen Henan students have been among hundreds of Chinese students to come to Akron. Currently 190 Chinese students are on the UA campus.
The Henan agreement also will pave the way for UA master's graduate Adam Smith to go to Henan University this fall to teach English and for Paul Weinstein, a history professor at UA's Wayne College, to teach history there next spring.
Ayers visits Henan each year when he leads a three-week trip for credit to China and Korea.
Strictly speaking, the Henan arrangement is separate from the Confucius Institute, said Ayers, who just returned from three weeks in China, where he interviewed Henan faculty for the UA positions.
He was addressing students in an auditorium in the nearby city of Zengzhou when the massive May 13 earthquake struck. Zengzhou is about 600 miles north of the quake's epicenter.
He was speaking in English, although he learned some Chinese when he and his wife taught English there in the mid-1980s.
''I thought I was getting dizzy,'' Ayers said. ''Then I noticed the kids were looking up. Then they started shouting 'earthquake' and everyone ran out.''
He was telling the students about the advantages of studying at UA -- the degree programs, the community, the process of applying.
But their biggest concern was much more practical -- how to get a visa, he said.
Last year Miami University received the first Confucius Institute in Ohio and Cleveland State became the second this year. Kent State applied this spring.
Ayers said he hopes to have the Confucius Institute up and running at UA late this year.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
The University of Akron is the third university in Ohio to win a Confucius Institute from the People's Republic of China.
UA announced this week that it is to receive a $100,000 grant, two fully funded instructors in Chinese and a 3,000-volume library to promote the Chinese language and culture.
David Ayers, director of the UA's office of international programs, said the award will enhance the university's efforts to teach college students and the public and possibly to help teachers instruct students in kindergarten through high school about the world's most populous country.
''It is a nice carrot,'' Ayers said. ''We're kind of feeling our way on what our priorities should be.''
Since China opened its doors to the world in 1982, it has become the United States' second-largest trading partner and the U.S. has become China's top export destination, according to the Census Bureau.
For the last four years, China has been building goodwill by funding nonprofit institutes named for the great Chinese philosopher in universities around the world.
China's Ministry of Education estimates that by 2010 as many as 200 institutes will help train 100 million people worldwide in Chinese as a foreign language while bolstering business ties, promoting faculty and student exchanges and publicizing the Chinese culture.
UA became the 42nd university in the United States to get an institute.
It will receive $100,000 to administer the program for each of the next five years and two instructors whose expenses will be fully paid by the Chinese government, plus the library of books, tapes and other resources about China.
The institute will help UA expand its Chinese language program, which started two years ago and now has 35 students.
The institutes partner U.S. universities with counterparts in China. In UA's case, that will be Henan University in Kaifeng, in the central province that also is named Henan. With 100 million people, it is the most populous province in China.
UA has had a student exchange agreement with Henan University for the last 10 years, Ayers said.
Over that decade, a dozen Henan students have been among hundreds of Chinese students to come to Akron. Currently 190 Chinese students are on the UA campus.
The Henan agreement also will pave the way for UA master's graduate Adam Smith to go to Henan University this fall to teach English and for Paul Weinstein, a history professor at UA's Wayne College, to teach history there next spring.
Ayers visits Henan each year when he leads a three-week trip for credit to China and Korea.
Strictly speaking, the Henan arrangement is separate from the Confucius Institute, said Ayers, who just returned from three weeks in China, where he interviewed Henan faculty for the UA positions.
He was addressing students in an auditorium in the nearby city of Zengzhou when the massive May 13 earthquake struck. Zengzhou is about 600 miles north of the quake's epicenter.
He was speaking in English, although he learned some Chinese when he and his wife taught English there in the mid-1980s.
''I thought I was getting dizzy,'' Ayers said. ''Then I noticed the kids were looking up. Then they started shouting 'earthquake' and everyone ran out.''
He was telling the students about the advantages of studying at UA -- the degree programs, the community, the process of applying.
But their biggest concern was much more practical -- how to get a visa, he said.
Last year Miami University received the first Confucius Institute in Ohio and Cleveland State became the second this year. Kent State applied this spring.
Ayers said he hopes to have the Confucius Institute up and running at UA late this year.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
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