“It came as a great and pleasant surprise to me that President Xi Jinping managed to reply our letter out of his busy schedule,” said Alruwaili Faisal Sabti, one of the Chinese learners and enthusiasts who wrote a letter to Chinese leader Xi and received a reply letter recently.
In 2022, the Sino-foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Education and CTI launched an online seminar for international Chinese teacher scholarships in Saudi Arabia. More than 1000 people participated in the Chinese language training project. As one of the host universities, Tianjin University undertook the training of 90 Saudi students in this project.
Alruwaili and six other co-authors got to know each other while attending an online Chinese training program at Tianjin University supported by the International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship from June to October, 2022. “At the end of the program, we wanted to share our feelings of learning Chinese with President Xi and our dedication to be envoys of friendship between the two countries. With the encourage of our Chinese teachers, we joined the group of more than 100 Saudi people under the same program in different universities to write the letter.”
During the training program, Alruwaili was fascinated with Chinese culture and made up his mind to further his study in China. “I’m planning to study for my master’s degree in Tianjin University as I learned that it is the first modern university in China.”
Yin Xiaojing, Alruwaili’s Chinese teacher from Tianjin University’s School of International Education felt proud of the students. “President Xi said that language is the best key to understanding a country. It’s our goal to help Saudi youths grasp an idea of what China is like through language and culture learning. To achieve this, we tried to provide a relaxing, engaging and fun learning environment.” According to Yin, besides Chinese language classes, the university designed many courses about Chinese food, festivals and traditional culture, hoping to give a panorama view of China during the program.
Kholoud Mohmmed Almutairi from the King Saud University, another author of the letter, loves the courses about Chinese cuisines. "There is a Chinese restaurant near my home, so I know more about Chinese food. If chance permits, I shall visit China and try the authentic Chinese food, like Kung Pao Chicken.”
Many Saudi youths pay great attention to the ongoing first China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit. Samiyah Aaleh Almutairy from the King Abdulaziz University is among them. He believed that the summit would have a great impact on his future career. “China and Saudi Arabia are having a tighter knot with each other. Learning Chinese will prove to be a huge advantage in future. I’d like to work in an international company that fosters cooperation and exchanges between the two countries and as President Xi has urged in his reply, make contributions to enhancing China-Saudi Arabia and China-Arab relations.”
By Eva Yin
