On September 19, the Confucius Institute in Edmonton welcomed a visit from the delegation of University of Alberta. The delegation consisted of 28 administrators from different universities in China who are working in the department of international students and programs. These people are attending a three-month special leadership training program.
During the visit, the group toured the CIE facilities, including office, library, teachers’ office and hallway photo gallery. They also attended a session presented by Dr. Wei Li on CIE and Edmonton Chinese Bilingual Program. The delegates had the opportunity to meet with 5 Chinese visiting teachers of CIE.
After lunch, the delegation paid a visit to Meyonohk School which is one of the six Chinese bilingual elementary schools in Edmonton Public Schools. Mrs. Karen Patterson, the principal, gave a warm welcome greeting to the delegates and also briefly described the Chinese bilingual program at Meyonohk School. Then, the delegates observed the students learning Chinese in classrooms and also had opportunity to talk to some students and teachers.
Since 2014, the CIE has hosted 9 visits from the program with more than 320 people. They learned a lot about CIE and the Chinese bilingual program. They all were impressed about the achievements made by CIE and Edmonton Chinese Bilingual Program with the regard of Chinese language and culture education.