By: Binta Jaiteh
Chinese Embassy in the Gambia, on Wednesday, commemorated International Chinese Language Day at Nustrat Senior Secondary School in Bundung.
The commemoration was held under the theme: “facilitating dialogues across civilizations” and it proves China’s efforts to promote the development exchange of mutual appreciation of civilizations.
In his speech, Mamadi Ceesay, Principal of Nusrat Senior Secondary School highlighted the importance of language and said language acquisition is not merely for communication in spoken and written forms but also enhances cultural awareness and integration.
“This is one reason the Chinese Embassy in The Gambia deemed it necessary to establish a Chinese Cultural Centre at Nusrat School for people to seize this opportunity to learn the Chinese Language, know the Chinese culture, integrate freely with the people of China, and benefit bountifully from China’s technological advancement, commerce/business, a wide range of educational opportunities and very significantly, cultural exchange and transfer of skills and values.”
However, he added following massive economic growth as the world’s economic powerhouse today, the Chinese Language is now the second most spoken language around the world with over one billion users. He therefore extoled the Chinese Embassy officials, especially the volunteer tutor for availing The Gambia, through Nusrat School, the golden opportunity to tap from the vast openings emanating from the world’s manufacturing hub – China.
H.E Jin Liu, Chinese Ambassador, also said “Countries should let cultural exchanges transcend estrangement, mutual learning transcends clashes, and coexistence transcends feelings of superiority. We also advocate robust international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. Countries need to explore the building of a global network for inter-civilization dialogue and cooperation, and to jointly advance the progress of human civilizations.”
According to him, language is the link of emotional communication, adding there are more than 2,500 ethnic groups and more than 5,000 languages in the world today, and this diversity is the driving force for the development of human civilization.
He noted that the Gambian Foreign Minister, Dr. Mamadou Tangara, during his recent visit to China, also welcomed the 3 global initiatives proposed by the Chinese President, adding there must be no clash of civilizations and no civilization is superior to the other.
