Recently, the Confucius Institute at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University set up a new teaching site in Strumica, a time-honored city 100 km away from Skopje, enrolling about 100 students of different ages from children to adults. Previously, the Confucius Institute held multiple meetings for teaching preparation including class arrangement and teaching plans for various students with distinct age and background. In this way can all faculty be clear about the teaching tasks and working priorities.
For the first class, teachers adopted different teaching methods to enable students to start their Chinese-learning journey in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. For kids, teachers used animation, imitation and singing to help students learn about the basic daily Chinese and its characteristics. For teenagers and adults, teachers then introduced the Chinese culture, the features and evolution of Chinese characters, and also the learning methods, which dispelled the students’ fears for Chinese. The classes strengthened beginners’ confidence and broadened their horizon. Especially for student Anastasija, who mailed Teacher Fan Shengnan soon after her first class, saying, “Thank you for your wonderful Chinese lesson! I love it so much, and I can’t wait to meet you in the next class!”
Chinese teaching is not only a way to promoting Chinese language, but also a bridge for people in different countries to communicate with each other. With the expansion of the teaching scale of Confucius Institutes, Chinese language and culture have become increasingly popular in North Macedonia. The teaching sites of Confucius Institute except that in Skopje have increased to four after the official operation of the teaching site in Strumica. It can be seen that the influence of Confucius Institutes is extending beyond Skopje to a wider geographical area, giving more North Macedonians the opportunity to learn about Chinese and Chinese culture.
