Language Lab opens on Mont Fleuri campus |06 July 2023

The Confucius Institute’s Language Lab was officially opened yesterday afternoon at the ICT centre, Mont Fleuri University campus.

The lab contains 24 seats and will teach Chinese and Mandarin.

When addressing the guests at yesterday’s ceremony, the director of the Confucius Institute, Dongxia Wang, said the team working on the project did not have an easy task especially with the Covid-19 pandemic. “Before Covid-19 we started the project with the very important and supportive University of Seychelles, because we knew that under the limited space on the campus at Mont Fleuri, setting up a lab was not an easy thing,” she explained.

She added that the university put in a great deal of effort in order to support the project.

Mrs Wang said they encountered problems with the installation of the computers, which were engineered by Hunan Construction Engineering, early on. However, they received very good support and the project was able to be completed.

She noted that although 24 seats may not be very big, the symbolic nature of it bears witness to the relationship between the Confucius Institute and the University of Seychelles.

“The institute was founded in Seychelles in 2014, and even before that the members of the institute were here doing Chinese teachings for the people of Seychelles.”

To conclude, Mrs Wang who applauded the setting up of such a lab, stated that “with the whole effort of the Confucius Institute and the work of the University of Seychelles we can make win-win progress in the development of UniSey and the institute”.

For his part, chargé d’affaires of the Chinese embassy in Seychelles, Mu Jianfeng, stated the lab is there as a symbol of the healthy relationship between Seychelles and China and it will help promote the culture and bridge the gap between the two countries over the current language barrier.

“This was no easy task because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resources available. It was up to us to work together,” he stated. “It is a wonderful opportunity and facility to learn Chinese.”

When addressing the guests, the vice-chancellor of UniSey, Joëlle Perreau, said the opening of the language lab is a very important step in the progress of the University. “Through the Confucius Institute, I think this grants even more opportunities for the Seychellois, as they are fantastic learners, because we do have a few people learning Chinese, language and culture,” she stated.

She stated that learning Chinese was not simply for the pleasure of it, but there is the professional aspect to it as well.

“We have worked with the airport, immigration and SCAA and STA because for tourism we do need more Seychellois to be able to understand and speak Chinese.” She commented that despite the limited space, the hardworking staff of both the institute and Unisey will make proper use of it and encourage a lot of people to learn at the Mont Fleuri campus. “This is also an important and healthy campus for the University.”

She added that the lab will help the country reach even greater heights and further development.

Speaking to the press after the event, Ms Perreau explained that the Chinese courses to be learned in the new lab will now be added to the University’s list.

There will be five levels for the applicants to choose from and various competitions for the younger ones, such as the Chinese bridge competitions where people could come and sing. There will also be a contest where the winners will get a chance to visit China.

She emphasised the fact that Seychelles being a tourism destination, it was important that the different entities and the people could understand the language. “We are noticing that we are getting more Chinese tourists. Different entities such as the police have come forward and stated that there should be a minimum because more often than not the tourists do not understand either English or French.”

She noted that the country can get even more tourists if in the big hotels, there is at least one person who could speak basic Chinese.

Regarding the actual language itself, Ms Perreau said the citizens of Seychelles who love learning new languages can practise in peace and work hard on things such as the pronunciation. “In a language like Chinese, there are a lot of tonal difference. For example when you say the word ‘ma’ you could end up saying horse instead of mother.”

There will be an examination that the applicants could also do at different levels called HSK and a person with a scholarship to study in China, could do the test here.

Confucius Institute existed as part of the University of Seychelles since 2014-2015 and it started off as a classroom before being promoted to an institute.

“An institute allowed us to do more things. We are really happy that after all these years we can finally open the language lab. For all languages you can use a language lab and we are blessed we could do it,” concluded Ms Perreau.

The accompanying photos show highlights of the ceremony.

Sunny Esparon

Photos by Leanne Alcindor