Their story began in 2015, when the Beijing International Studies University (BISU) launched a 7-year program with the participation of 20 high-school students. In the framework of the program, they studied Hungarian language for 3 years in high school, before moving to Hungary and beginning their degree programs majoring in Hungarian.
BISU contacted the University of Debrecen and the Summer University of Debrecen through the Beijing Hungarian Cultural Institute. Péter Szaffkó, Director of the Summer University visited the Chinese university in May 2016 to participate in the design of the cooperative program. Hungarian teachers were also involved in the education of the Chinese students involved in the program.
- Managed jointly by several organizational units of UD, including the Coordination Center for International Education, the Faculty of Humanities, and the Institute of Hungarian Linguistics, in the first part of the program 20 Chinese students arrived in Debrecen in September 2007, who participated in a one-year program studying Hungarian language and culture. Most of the classes were held by teachers of the Summer University, who closely cooperated in professional matters with teachers of the Institute of Hungarian Linguistics in order to prepare the admission of the Chinese students to the Hungarian BA course , which was to start one year later - explained Péter Szaffkó, Director of the Debrecen Summer University to hirek.unideb.hu.
The students of BISU took a complex (oral and a written) entrance exam to gain admission to the Hungarian BA course.
Currently, the Faculty of Humanities of UD has 12 third-year and 16 second-year Chinese students.
- We sought to design a course that effectively provides students with useful knowledge so that they can master the Hungarian language, get familiar with the Hungarian culture, and improve communication skills. In addition to transferring professional knowledge, we wanted to achieve that they have highly accurate knowledge of the structure of the Hungarian language, and a detailed picture of the Hungarian language and culture through literature and linguistic subjects – noted Edit Dobi, Associate Professor of the Institute of Hungarian Linguistics, and professional coordinator of the program in Hungary.
The Chinese students are taught by teachers and PhD students of the Institute of Hungarian and Comparative Literature of the Faculty of Humanities and the Institute of Hungarian Linguistics. This work is a real challenge for them.
- It is the difference between the Hungarian and the Chinese culture, and the limited knowledge of our teachers about China that makes this task difficult. On this note, we highly respect the Chinese students, who have proved to be outstandingly open-minded, hard-working and persistent. As early as in their teens they committed themselves to the Hungarian and the European culture, learned the language, and are now making great efforts to learn our history, culture and literature – pointed out Gergely Fazakas.
The director of the Institute of Hungarian and Comparative Literature of the Faculty of Humanities highlighted that besides presenting Hungarian and European culture, the interpretation of the texts together and explaining their linguistic and cultural historical context, as well as the introduction of major works in the fields of fine arts, film arts and contemporary pop culture are also important aspects of the program.
Approaching their graduation day, students are already working on their theses that are written, of course, in Hungarian. One of them is writing about the character of Achilles based on Hungarian translations of Homer’s Iliad. Others deal with Dante’s Divine Comedy, Gáspár Heltai’s fables, or Bálint Balassi’s romantic poems. The range of topics also includes the emerging “café culture” of the Hungarian literature in the era of the enlightenment, the symbolism of Ady, contemporary literature for children and adolescents, movie adaptations of novels, and issues related to the digital media.
It is very likely that after graduation some them will apply to the MA course in Hungarian literature and linguistics of the University of Debrecen.
Press Office – BZs
