Nanfang Daily and Its Official We-Chat App Release Special Report on GDUFS

Editor’s notes: The university is the vital bonding point of the primary productivity of technology and the first resource of talent. It is also the important source and momentum of innovation-driven development. Guangdong has made its economy grow, stepping into the new normal, by implementing innovation-driven development strategies and promoted societies economic transition and upgrading in many areas. At this crucial time, concentrating on founding a number of high caliber universities, is of great strategic importance.

In order to show the competence of universities as well as create an atmosphere for innovation-driven development strategies in Guangdong, Nanfang Daily and Ministry of Education in Guangdong Province are making a joint effort to release “universities taking the lead in the innovation-driven process” in a series of omni-media reports which are aimed at visiting the famous universities in Guangdong Province, in-depth, Identifying the unique advantages characteristic of each and sharing the experiences of founding the top-ranking universities and building the special key disciplines to provide services for the binding innovation-driven strategy of each.

On June 7^th, the Nanfang Daily Special published the report forging the highland of thing-tanks, promoting the new pattern of opening-up in Guangdong Province, relating a series essays on we-chat, [top-ranking university show in Guangdong 9] 99% don’ t know that CET-4 and CET-6 were established by GDUFS, [top-ranking university show in Guangdong 9] guidelines on the right way to open GDUFS.

Special report in Nanfang Daily

Nanfang Daily: On February 27th, you stated in the Guangdong Province High-level Universities Construction Conference that: “Guangdong University of Foreign Studies will be built up as a high-tier internationalized university.” Why were you so confident to say that?

ZHONG Weihe: We have striking features and unique advantages in our disciplines. With 20 foreign languages available, the University is the only one in South China that offers such a great variety of foreign language programs and enjoys the highest concentration of foreign language talents. Furthermore, the general level of our foreign language disciplines ranks third among the national universities and colleges. GDUFS pioneered the domestic studies of Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, which are listed as National Key Disciplines. Our translation discipline is also among the best across the nation.

Nanfang Daily: It is said that GDUFS has set a national standard for foreign languages.

 ZHONG Weihe: Since the 1980s, the experts in GDUFS have started to take charge of the studies of the national evaluation system for foreign language proficiency. Currently, we are also the Secretariat Members of the China National Committee for MTI Education and the ELT Advisory Board under the Ministry of Education

In recent years, the University has led the setting of national criteria for awarding Master's and Doctoral Degrees in Foreign Languages and Literature and has set the standards for majors like English, Interpreting and Translation and English for International Business. By setting and providing the information about the standards, GDUFS enjoys the discourse power and is making a significant academic impact in China.

Yunshan scholars from the international academia sound “the Voice of GDUFS”

Nanfang Daily: Talents play a crucial role in setting the national standards for foreign languages.

Zhong Weihe: In the last five years, GDUFS has made efforts to fill in the gaps of state-level bright people. At present, our university faculty boasts 19 high-level members, some of which are selected as National Candidates for the “New Century Hundreds and Thousands of Talents Project.”  We started the “Yunshan Scholars Program” in 2010 and have employed 52 “Yunshan Scholars” to-date. The university is devoted to the introduction and cultivation of talented people. Every year, 15 million Yuan is budgeted for the “Yunshan Scholar” program.

Nanfang Daily: How do these high-end talents influence the University?

ZHONG Weihe: They serve as the academic SWAT team and play a critical role in the achievements and innovations in scientific research.

For instance, the first “Yunshan Scholar” Doctor YANG Jing forms part of a team with two GDUFS professors majoring in neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics, to carry out the study in the language areas in the human brain with the joint efforts of other young teachers and graduate students. Recently, Doctor YANG Jing and Professor LI Ping have published a paper concerning neural changes underlying successful second language/word learning in the world’s leading linguistics journal. It has become a resounding voice for GDUFS in academia. Another American researcher Kalim Gonzales published an article on the achievement in babies’ bilingual learning in the international core journal of psychology, and it has received a huge response in academia.

These leading figures not only advance their disciplines respectively, but also they promote the collaborative innovation in the interdisciplinary studies, such as psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, interpreting and translation, language engineering and English for International Business to name but a few.

Nanfang Daily: How will GDUFS use its strengths to serve the overall situation against the strategic backdrop of “the Belt and Road Initiatives”?

ZHONG Weihe: The “Belt and Road Initiatives” mark a brand-new pattern of opening up. If China wants to interconnect with the world, there should be well-established channels of interconnection and language acts as just such a major channel.

GDUFS has offered programs of strategic minor languages since 2012. Last year, we increased the offering with a major in the Lao language, a major in the Cambodian and in Myanmar languages besides three original minor language programs, namely a major in Thai, a major in Indonesian and a major in Vietnamese. In 2015, GDUFS established a major in Malay and a major in Urdu. We are the only university in Guangdong Province to be listed as the cultivation base for the lingua franca of undergraduates under the Ministry of Education—“the Lingua Franca Teaching and Research Center”. At the moment, the minor languages program in GDUFS have covered ASEAN, South Asia, West Asia, North Africa, European and other core areas of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Route Economic Belt. Using the minor languages to serve the national major strategy is our self-requirement and long-term goal.

Nanfang Daily: You have mentioned that GDUFS will “become the strategic highland to lead the development of an open economy in Guangdong in the future”. What will you do to build the university as the strategic highland when Guangdong has entered the critical period of comprehensively promoting the innovation-driven strategy?

ZHONG Weihe: We gave the full play to our multilingual and multidisciplinary strengths and have established the Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies (GRIIS). Since 2013, the Institute has submitted 78 advisory and decision-making reports and 68 of them have received instructions and comments from leaders at all level. GRIIS is becoming the new Think-Tank with a respected impact. The three key projects we undertook from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were awarded the 2014 Excellent Achievements of the Ministry, including the one featuring policy studies, namely “The perspectives and proposals on strengthening the cooperation between China and nations of South Pacific Ocean”.

Additionally, the Guangdong Research Center for Pacific Islands Strategies will be founded soon according to the arrangement of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government. Entrusted by the Government at a higher level, GDUFS set up the first training course for Pacific islands senior civil servants. 24 civil servants from Fiji, the Chuuk State of Micronesia, Samoa and Tonga took part in the forums and communications concerning the subjects of “Chinese National conditions and culture”, “China and the Pacific Islands” and “Guangdong Provincial conditions” and gained further understandings of “the Belt and Road Initiatives”

Nanfang Daily: What other fields has GDUFS become involved in besides the strategic research?

ZHONG Weihe: Facing the fledgling international language service industry, we established the Center of Collaborative Innovation for Language Studies & Service. Through the collaboration of production, study and research, we are aimed at constructing the international language platforms of service research, E-learning, service data and enterprises cultivation.

Besides, we take advantage of the foreign language and law disciplines to conduct the interdisciplinary research and study the issues at the frontier of each discipline. The University has translated multiple legislation and legal documents entrusted by the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress and become one of the key institutes to carry out the research and cultivate the qualified people for rule of law involving foreign interests.

Practising in the UN and EU, with GDUFS’ers international style

Nanfang Daily: This year GDUFS is going to celebrate its 50th anniversary, would you like to share with us your future plans for GDUFS?

ZHONG Weihe: In the following 5 years, we plan to add 3 to 5 majors of programs for minor languages which are relatively used by a large number of people and have great strategic significance. Also we are going to build up a high-level associative training project for brilliant students in minor languages and to establish a special fund to ensure students majoring in minor languages have learning experiences in corresponding countries during their undergraduate studies etc. In terms of subjects, cross combinations of foreign languages and the laws of economic management, foreign languages and computer science are encouraged in order to give birth to a number of new interdisciplinary subjects. Furthermore, we will take the lead in setting up a creative foreign language aptitude assessment system for international talented personnel.

In addition, enterprise-university-research integrated creative platforms, such as the first “foreign languages learning big data centre” and the first “multilingual supportive e-commerce service centre”, are going to be constructed.

In conclusion, we are working hard to build GDUFS into an international top university with distinctive features by 2025, which provides service for China and for Guangdong Province to implement innovation-driven strategies, to enhance the level of opening-up and to construct a new open economic system.

Nanfang Daily: What temperament do you think GDUFS students now have after great hardships in the past half century?

ZHONG Weihe: I think GDUFS students have become quite international in many ways. Our university practises the school motto Pursuit of Integrity, Practice and Cross-cultural Learning and cultivates internationally-intelligent personnel with “2 tops”, that is (1) a top in thought and mind and in (2) professionalism; and “2 strongs”, that is strength in cross-cultural communications and in practice and creative ecapabilities. These students, with international outlooks and a sense of social commitment, also have a good knowledge of international rules and are able to participate in international cooperation and competitions directly. Besides, our university has gone into partnership with 268 colleges and universities as well as cultural institutions and academics in nearly 48 countries and regions to carry out 175 various programs of students’ going abroad for credits and projects. Last year, about 16% of all our students went abroad to study. Every year there are more than 2,600 foreign students from over 130 countries and regions studying in our university. Meanwhile, many students apply for internships in UN and EU organizations. Our students really achieve the combination of theory and practice of the motto: March Thousands of Miles and Read Thousands of Books.  And there are more and more foreign professors in our research team each year.

Nanfang Daily: What will you select as a representative name or ‘label’ for GDUFS?

ZHONG Weihe: Our University has plenty of attractive representations, such as; firstly, international volunteer service. In the recent 10 years, volunteers from GDUFS appeared in various major international events, like the Beijing Olympic Games, the Shanghai World Expo, the Guangzhou Asian Games, the Asian Para Games, the Shenzhen Universiade, every annual Canton Fair and even the London Olympic Games.

Secondly, simultaneous interpretation as a subject name card is outstandingly attractive too. The experimental teaching centre of simultaneous interpretation in our university is the only national platform of its kind in the whole province. It is not at all exaggerated to say that GDUFS is the no.1 university famous for simultaneous interpretation in South China.

Thirdly, the ladies’ golf team of our university is also rather remarkable. All 5 members in the team are core players in the National Team; among whom, LI Jiayun, is the captain of the National Ladies’ Golf Team. FENG Shanshan has already won the championship of LPGA 6 times.

Hunting treasure at GDUFS

Minority languages forging the grand strategy, diversified languages sledging the grant industry…

There is a saying that GDUFS is a big “foreign language corner”. You can hear more than 20 foreign languages accidently almost anywhere on campus, languages such as English, French, Korean, Indonesia and more language is not just simply a language here, but has the power to “turn stone into gold”. (Chinese proverb)

The new-type think tank based on diversified languages and disciplines provides the Maritime Silk Road with a multi-discipline decision consultation capability. The Provincial “Foreign Language Research and Language Service Joint Innovation Center” has significantly demonstrated application platform - Chuanshen Diversified languages port offers services directly to the politics, economy and culture in the economical and regional centers through the 020 mode. In addition, you can find answers of whether learning foreign language will make people smarter, how to master a foreign language efficiently, etc. from the Bilingual Cognition and Bilingual Education Laboratory.

New-type Think-Tank : “Maritime Silk Road” Center Driving Guangdong’s role in the “going out” move

The Maritime Silk Road Collaborative Innovation Center in the 21th Century was upgraded from the prototype-Guangdong “Going Out” Collaborative Innovation Center. It belongs to one of the two emphasized construction projects of the State-Level collaborative innovation centers of Guangdong Province in 2015, which are the strategic deployments in implementing the “2011 Plan”, focusing on the “One Belt, One Road” strategy and serving the urgent and great mission of the country. The center, supported by the Guangdong International Institute for Strategic Studies and led by the Party Secretary and Executive Vice-president SUI Guangjun, binds the domestic top-ranking think tanks, the high caliber universities as well as the research institutes into a unified whole.

Since 2013, the center has submitted 78 decision-making consultation reports towards central-planners and related departments; 68 of which have received instructions from central-planners and provincial leaders, and getting obvious advisory results.

The center led by Professor SUI Guangjun collaborated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and formed a joint research team. They went to Southeast Asian and African countries, communicating with top-ranking think-tanks from ASEAN and African countries, related universities as well as enterprises. The research report was highly acclaimed by the central leaders.

Research from the Centers’ famous professor on international issues, ZHOU Fangyin, expressed the idea that the Center is on the way to a normalized high-end international communications platform; to joint releases of research achievements overseas with other well-known think tanks; giving full play as its role of a think tank for MIC; to establishment of cooperation and talent exchange systems with important institutes of the countries along the road and to cultivating young leaders with the countries around the road.

Multilingual Port: from foreign language illiterate to local Know-It-All

Can a “foreign language illiterate” become “local know-it-all” overseas? Let “GDUFS Transn Multilingual Port” help you!

The multilingual port is the“Foreign Language Research and Language Service Joint Innovation Center” that significantly demonstrated the application platform in Guangdong Province. Established by GDUFS and Transn (China) Network Technology Limited Company, it is making efforts to build up an efficient language services platform in Southern China. The services and functions of the port range of the language services about the international cultural communications efforts of the government, the “bring in, get out” strategy of the participating enterprises and the cross-language communication abilities in society to the talent training programs in the language-relating fields and the establishment of the expert base, all form parts of the program.

The person in-charge of the port gave an example: if Chinese tourists are lost in Japan, all they should do is shooting a nearby guidepost and uploading it to the platform. Then the map in Chinese will be sent to their mobile to lead them to the right way.

For a long time, GDUFS has been providing services to Guangdong Province, and even for the national economic society. The interpreting team led by “the best interpreter in the Southern China”, ZHONG Weihe has served at many large international meetings like the Changyang Advisory Meeting.  In the previous sessions, CAEXPO, UNCTAD and others, thousands of students have provided translating and interpreting services for the Asian Games in Guangzhou, Games for University Students in Shenzhen. “GDUFS Education” has spread into the foreign language training of senior cadres of Guangdong Province and the staffs from foreign trade and economic systems as well as the public security system. “GDUFS footprints” have stretched from the impoverished villages to the streets and lanes in the city. Every summer vacation, students from GDUFS go to the impoverished mountainous areas for voluntary English teaching and the communities in the cities for English demonstrations and correction activities.

Brain and Language Laboratory: The better of your learn a foreign language, the more efficient your brain network operates.

The American who learns Chinese well has a more efficient brain network! This shows from another view that learning a language needs talent.

This newest research finding is from the Bilingual Cognition and Bilingual Education Laboratory in GDUFS (Brain and Language Lab). The authority in the psycholinguistics field, GUI Shichun, and the experts in the international bilingual field, act as the consultants, and professor DONG Yanping acts as the Director. The lab combines behavioral tests, like eye movement, with the neural science and technology of electroencephalogram and brain imaging, exploring the theoretical and practical problems of bilingual study, which are gaining a high reputation internationally.

Recently, Doctor Yangjing and Professor Liping released a report about the tones used when Americans learn Chinese in the Journal of Neurolinguistics, and was reported by many mainstream media like CBS news in the US, CTV news in Canada, Science Daily and more. An American researcher called Kalim Gonzales published his findings about the bilingual study of infants on Cognition, a report that also seized the attention of the academic world. The research showed that learning language is like eating. You have to do it step-by-step. The infants will do better if they study foreign languages  one at a time, instead of two or more.

The Bilingual Cognition and Bilingual Education Lab supports the leading discipline in GDUFS - foreign linguistics and applied linguistics, which was set up by Professor GUI Shichun and other scholars, and involves many research directions like theoretical linguistics, applied linguistics, bilingual research, second language acquisition, language testing, pragmatics, lexicography, text analysis, computational linguistics and more. It is also the first and only  one to be titled as a State-Level key discipline in the field.

Honors:

First in the nationwide: foreign linguistics and applied linguistics of state-level key disciplines.

The only nationwide: key humanities and social sciences research base of the Ministry of Education in foreign linguistics and applied linguistics

Second nationwide: the employment rate of the graduates in 2014-99.9%

Ranked first among the foreign language universities nationwide: the project approval  is mounted on changes in the humanities and social sciences in 2013 and 2014.

The only nationwide: the innovative trial plot cultivation mode of international business talents of the Ministry of Education.

The only among the foreign language universities nationwide: passing the international certification of AMBA.

The only among the foreign language universities nationwide: selected in CAMPUS ASIA

Part of the first group of universities nationwide: the model university managed by the Ministry of Education.

The first in Southern China: 20 foreign languages, amounting to the most offered by any university in South China. Having the most Foreign language talents on staff. One of the top 19 universities selected to provide translating and interpreting talents to the UN.

The first in Southern China: key collaborative unit of policy research with Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The only in Guangdong Province: the model base of international talents cultivation in Guangdong Province.

The only in Guangdong Province: base of non-common language talent cultivation.

The first in Guangdong Province: the first provincial university getting its’ statute approved by Office of Education.

The only in Guangdong Province: “national advanced work unit of employment” titled by the State Council.

The first in Guangdong Province: the amounts of key projects approved related to philosophy and social science research for the Ministry of Education in 2014, hitting the top rankings Nationally.