The Cross Years of Russian-Chinese Cooperation in Education 2026-2027 will contribute to further growth in the number of Russians studying the Chinese language as reported in an interview by Svetlana Bayramova, Co-Director of the Confucius Institute at Irkutsk State University, to a correspondent of Xinhua (the official news agency of the government of the People’s Republic of China and the largest information and press conference centre in the PRC).
According to Svetlana Bayramova, about 350 students are now studying at ISU Confucius Institute, and not only university students but also schoolchildren and adults with specific professions: doctors, lawyers, engineers.
Svetlana Bayramova:
People want to study the Chinese language within the framework of their specialty, and we provide them with this opportunity. In addition, we expect that the number of people wanting to study the Chinese language will continue to grow.
ISU Confucius Institute serves as the platform for the international HSK Chinese language proficiency exam, as well as various master classes on Chinese culture, including calligraphy, Chinese traditional painting and paper cutting. Svetlana Bayramova became the Head of ISU Confucius Institute since 2007. According to her, interest in China and learning Chinese has grown significantly in recent years.
Svetlana Bayramova:
A huge number of schoolchildren now want to study the Chinese language. Schoolchildren have a dream – to go to study in China and receive an education there. Many parents ask us how to do this, whether such an opportunity exists. We explain it to them. Everyone wants to study in China.
Such interest is explained by the co-director of ISU Confucius Institute primarily by the economic success that China has demonstrated to the whole world. As Svetlana Bayramova noted, everyone wants to see this “Chinese miracle”. But how to see it? One must study the language because language learning is the key to understanding. People learn the language, then they want to go to China to see everything with their own eyes.
The co-director of ISU Confucius Institute emphasized that she herself is a witness to how China has changed. Having graduated from Irkutsk State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages with a degree in Chinese language, in 1995 Svetlana Bayramova went to China for the first time. Later, she repeatedly visited the country, participated in various conferences, and was personally able to assess the changes.
Co-director of ISU Confucius Institute:
The first time we just went on a tour, I remember what China was like in 1995: small houses with stone floors. And in 2026, how drastically China has changed: beautiful skyscrapers, beautiful parks have appeared.
In her opinion, the secret of China’s successful development lies in the hard work of the Chinese people and their desire to live well, as well as the desire of the Chinese leadership to care for the population and do everything for its benefit. An interlocutor noted that people study the Chinese language in order to understand what the breakthrough consists of and how it happened.
Svetlana Bayramova is convinced that studying the language on its own is not enough, it needs to be studied together with a profession.
We hope that we will teach the Chinese language at the Confucius Institute as much as possible to students who are getting some kind of specialization, so that in the future Russia and China can cooperate in various fields. Cooperation is the most important thing that holds our two friendly countries together. We have been friends since long ago and we remain friends to this day. That is our strength.
Background: Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) is a standardized proficiency exam in the Chinese language for non-native speakers, the results of which are recognized worldwide.
