MUTARE -- The Chinese government will help set up a language centre at Zimbabwes Africa University, where Mandarin and other languages will be taught, university officials said last week.Vice Chancellor Professor Fanuel Tagwira told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that the university which is one of a few universities in Zimbabwe not owned by the government was in talks with the Chinese embassy over the establishment of a Chinese Confucius Centre at the campus.
Tagwira said the Pan African institution, which has students from 28 English, French and Portuguese speaking countries, was always looking for ways to enhance the diversity of programmes and subjects on offers to learners.
Indeed, the University is looking forward to the setting up of a language centre where we will offer various languages including Swahili to both our students and Mutare community, he said.
The Confucius Centre planned for Africa University will be the second such language centre in Zimbabwe, with the other centre already in operation at the government-owned University of Zimbabwe, the biggest institution of higher learning in the country.
I am reliably informed that there are only 24 Confucius centres in the world and one of them is at University of Zimbabwe. Many countries in Africa are also looking to do business China as it has emerged to one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Tagwira said.
He said with business between China and African continuing to grow it was high time that the continent did more to learn and appreciate Chinese language and culture.
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