Peking University, April 19, 2019: The 11th cultural festival of the School of Foreign Languages (SFL) kicked off on April 19 at the Hall of No. 2 Gymnasium. The festival marked the beginning of the annual activities promoting SFL students’ campus life and focusing on faculty members’ discussion on the mission and future of SFL. Moreover, this year’s festival witnesses the 20th anniversary of the founding of SFL.
Li Shujing, SFL deputy party secretary, announced the opening of the festival. In her speech, she emphasized the mission of the school to cultivate talents who contribute to international communication with their language ability. She also called for students to look back to the history of the school and forge forward.
Li Shujing making an opening remark
Gao Jing, vice deputy secretary of SFL Youth League Committee, also highlighted SFL students' responsibility to bridge international communication and to build the community of shared future for mankind.
Gao Jing addressing at the opening ceremony
Excellent student teams were awarded during the ceremony including SFL debate team, student basketball teams and Chinese language education research team in Malaysia.
Among them, Li Yang, member of the Chinese language education research team, introduced their research on the status quo of Chinese language teaching in Malaysia. His speech echoed with Li and Gao's when he said that language serves as a useful tool to understand the world. “For SFL students, they need to test their language ability in social practices and make full use of it,” Li said.
Li Yang offering his insights
After the tea break, two forums follow with SFL professors talking about what changes and what gets preserved in SFL as well as the mission of SFL students and faculty members.
The cultural festival marks SFL's 20th anniversary, the history of which dates back to 1898 when English, French, German, Russian and Japanese were taught at the Imperial University of Peking. In 1999, the departments of Russian, English, Western languages and Eastern languages integrated and SFL came into being.
At the opening ceremony
The festival aims to review its history and achievements within the past two decades in language teaching and academic research. Furthermore, through the forums, the prospectus and mission will be discussed.
Apart from the ceremony, an orienteering competition will be held this Sunday. Artistic designs are also released at the ceremony.
Covers of notebooks designed for the festival
Reported by: Yan Shengnan
Photo by: Xu Penghang
Edited by: Huang Weijian
