Forty four students at the Seychelles Police Academy (SPA) have enrolled on a basic Chinese language course as part of their training.
The course, which is being facilitated by the SPA, the Confucius Institute in collaboration with the University of Seychelles (UniSey), started yesterday morning at the SPA at Pointe Larue.
The new course aims at introducing Chinese culture in Seychelles since China’s economy and exchanges with the world and even with Seychelles have seen rapid growth over the years.
There has also been a sharp increase in the world’s demand for Chinese learning.
All sessions will last two hours and are to be conducted once a week.
The course will also allow the students at the SPA to better interact with Chinese tourists.
The director of the Confucius Institute, Wang Dongxia, stated that by learning the Chinese language the students will discover a new culture.
“The course was initiated by the SPA with the help of the UniSey to teach the Chinese language to the students at SPA. It will allow the students to better interact with the Chinese tourists coming to Seychelles for vacation. With the good cooperation between Seychelles and China, it is necessary that the students get the opportunity to learn such a beautiful language. So we are giving more opportunities to the young people and also brighten their future,” she said.
Launching the course, assistant superintendent Nerd Wirtz said it will cover basic Chinese language for first year students at SPA.
“We wanted to improve our training and include culture studies for our young cadets, at the same the time the Confucius Institute approached us to deliver such a course. The Chinese language is developing so fast around the world, and people are learning this language, so it was vital that our students also get the opportunity to learn it,” he said.
Camilia Thomas, a student following the Advanced Certificate in Policing at the SPA, said she is ready to discover a new culture through such a course.
“It will be my first time learning such a language. It will be challenging, but we are all ready to undertake such a task. Seychelles is developing rapidly and more Chinese tourists are coming to our country, it will allow us to better communicate with them in their own language,” she said.
So far this year 4,864 Chinese travellers have disembarked at the Seychelles International Airport while in 2016 a total of 5,403 set foot on our beautiful archipelago.
