Spreading Chinese Culture with Youthful Passion - Story of International Chinese Language Teachers in Uganda

At the Confucius Institute at Makerere University in Uganda, there is a group of young Chinese teachers who bring the Chinese language and culture to the distant African country of Uganda, building a bridge of friendship between China and Uganda.

Established in December 2014, the Confucius Institute at Makerere University was jointly set by Xiangtan University and Makerere University in Uganda. It currently includes the Confucius Classroom of Luyanzi Institute of Technology, teaching points at Ntare School and International School of Uganda, with more than 20,000 registered students. There are currently 17 Chinese teachers, most of whom were born in the 1990s, pursuing their dreams in Uganda and showcasing the confidence and elegance of contemporary Chinese youth.

Wang Mengyun, with her short hair and sharp wit, graduated from Xiangtan University and has been teaching in Uganda for more than three years, including nearly two years of teaching at Ntare School with her colleague Zhang Yu. She said, "As the first group of foreign teachers at the school, I am determined to teach the local students well, as I can see their high enthusiasm for learning Chinese."

Ntare School is located in Mbarara City, 240 kilometers west of the capital, Kampala. It was the first school in western Uganda to offer Chinese language courses. Wang Mengyun mentioned that at the beginning, the school lacked multimedia teaching equipment and Chinese books or materials introducing Chinese culture, which made it very difficult to teach more than 80 students in one class.

"To ensure that every student can hear the pronunciation of Chinese characters clearly, we need to walk to the middle of the classroom and raise our voices to teach. In order to deepen students' understanding of Chinese culture, we downloaded teaching materials from the internet, printed them, and distributed them to the students for reading," she said. "After each evening study session, many students would wait outside our office for us to answer their questions. Zhang Yu and I patiently answered all their questions, often returning to the dormitory after 11 o'clock at night."

Their dedication and effort have achieved remarkable results, as students selected by the school have performed well in the "Chinese Bridge" competition for several times. In July 2021, a student from the school, Duan Weizhe, won first place in the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students in Uganda.

Deng Shuxian, also a graduate of Xiangtan University, has been working in Uganda for three years. He has worked in different types of teaching points, teaching preschool, elementary and secondary school students, and university students. He said, "Different teaching points have different teaching requirements. For example, for the preschool class at an international school, we need to inspire children's language interests, while for elementary and secondary school students, the focus is on helping them master Chinese communication skills and understand Chinese culture. With the accumulation of teaching experience, my communication with various students has become smoother, and the teaching effect has improved accordingly."

In addition to teaching, he also serves as head of the activity planning department of the Confucius Institute at Makerere University. Deng Shuxian said that at first, he was reluctant to plan activities, but looking back, this experience was also a valuable opportunity for his personal growth. Over the past three years, he successfully organized numerous activities, including the preliminary and final rounds of the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College School Students and Secondary School Students in Uganda, the "Voice into My Heart" Chinese song singing competition and the Spring Festival knowledge competition.

Like Wang Mengyun and Deng Shuxian, Wang Xiaojuan is also a young Chinese teacher, with seven years of experience teaching Chinese overseas. After graduating from Hainan University in 2014, she first volunteered as a Chinese language teacher at a university in the Philippines before becoming a government-sponsored teacher at the Confucius Institute at Makerere University.

International Chinese language teachers (from left to right, Wang Xiaojuan, Zhang Yu, and Wang Mengyun) celebrate the birthday of their colleague, Deng Shuxian (first from right)

One unforgettable experience for Wang Xiaojuan was co-hosting a Chinese language teaching program called "Chinese We Speak" at the urban television station in Uganda with a local teacher named Apollo in 2019. The program featured many interesting everyday stories in Chinese and included interactive question-and-answer sessions, receiving extensive praise from the local Chinese learning community and attracting about 300,000 viewers.

"After coming to Uganda, the overall progress of local Chinese teaching work has been smooth, which has further ignited my passion for work and given me a great sense of achievement," Wang Xiaojuan said. "I will treat international Chinese language teaching as a long-term career and continuously improve my professional skills."

When interviewed by reporters, Xia Zhuoqiong, the Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at Makerere University, stated that the young Chinese teachers at the institute are full of passion and innovative ideas, and they have successfully completed various teaching and cultural promotion work online and offline.

(Author: Zhang Gaiping)