By Olimatou Coker
The Chinese Embassy in Banjul has last week observed International Chinese Language and Culture Day at a ceremony held at the embassy in Bijilo.
The international language and culture day is observed annually on April 20th which was established by the United Nations Department of public information in 2010. The celebration aims to seek multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages through the organization.
Speaking to the press at the embassy, H.E Ma Jianchun, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to The Gambia, said learning Chinese language will be helpful to understand each other and to expand their cooperation in various fields and development with friends. “Language is very important and is a significant symbol and culture imprint of civilization. Chinese language is one of the United Nations official languages”.
He added that Chinese language plays a very important role in promoting exchange and communication among different civilizations and among countries in the world.
“Learning this kind of language is a better way for people to understand certain civilization. Promoting exchange and mutual learning of the language is an important way to build a better world and better life for people of all countries,” he said.
Ambassador Jianchun said he hoped the event will be helpful for them to boost their eagerness and interest in learning Chinese language.
He also disclosed that the Chinese language teaching was introduced in The Gambia 6 years ago when President Adam Barrow visited China and had a signing ceremony with President Xi Jinping on the Confucius Institute in The Gambia.
“One of the missions of introducing Chinese language to the Gambian students is that, the Gambian students are very talented as they already made a great achievement in learning the Chinese language.”
