The students of the Beijing University of International Studies (BISU) started their studies in Debrecen in accordance with the agreement signed with Nyári Egyetem (Debrecen Summer School). With the assistance of the Summer School, the high school students studied Hungarian laguage, Hungarian history and English. The university students, on the other hand, attended university courses along with Hungarian language classes. In September both groups will continue their studies at Beijing University, but after a year the younger students will return to Debrecen to begin their BA studies in Hungarian while many will finish their BA studies in China.
The students received their degrees at the end-of-academic year ceremony organised by Nyári Egyetem on Friday. The students thanked the Summer school and all their teachers for their care and attention throughout the entire year by handing over a cake and singing Hungarian folk songs, and the teachers sent them off with lots of useful advice.
- We hope to see them again soon and in the meantime we hope they will carry our good reputation all over the world, said Péter Szaffkó, Director of Nyári Egyetem.
It is not oly in Debrecen that Debrecen Nyári Egyetem does its best to make sure that the Chinese students can familiarise themselves with the Hungarian language and culture. In June, a smaller delegation went to theChinese town of Tianjin and the university there organised Hungarian days: there was a folk lore show, they taught the audience Hungarian folk song and folk dances, fried „lángos” together with the Chinese students, gave lectures about the historyof Hungarian- Chinese relations, European protocol, famous Hungarians, and the role of folk songs in language teaching.
It was at this event that the János Arany Centre was inaugurated, which is the only instituton like this in China. The main task of the institution will be to facilitate the teaching of Hungarian in China both among students and teachers. Debrecen Nyári Egyetem supports the organisation’s work continuously by helping teachers of Hungarian and supporting their events.
As a result of the Chinese-Hungarian cooperation two teachers of Hungarian of Chinese descent who teach in China are going to attend the summer courses of Debrecen Nyári Egyetem as scholarship holders: a professor at BISU holding The Rector of the University of Debrecen’s a scholarship, while another profesor of the University of Hsiang will be attending the Summer School holding a scholarship established last year by the dean of the Faculty of Arts of UD, to improve his Hungarian.
Debrecen Nyári Egyetem (Summer School of Debrecen) is at present working out contracts of agreeement with four Chinese universities. Witihin the seven-year-long programme students will be arriving at the University of Debrecen in September 2020 from all four universities, bringing the total number to 50.
A further two groups, one consisting of 16 universitiy students and another, consisting of 21 middle school students, have finished their one year-long studies at the UD. In China the János Arany Centre has been inaugurated, whose aim is to facilitate the teaching of Hungarian in China.
