From November 8 to November 11, Associate Professor Yang Lin, a vice professor in charge of Italian at the School of Foreign Languages, Nankai University, was invited to attend the centennial celebration and seminar of the University of Foreigners in Siena, Italy and made a speech on Teaching Italian in Chinese Higher Education System.
The theme of the seminar was The Italian World, Italian in the World - Centenary of the Siena Foreign Italian School. Ms. Valeria Fedeli, Minister of Education of Italy, attended the opening ceremony of the centennial celebration on November 8 and gave a speech. Participants included scholars from Italy, China, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Egypt, Vietnam and other countries, including Professor Nicetta Malaski, former president of the Accademia della Crusca, , Professor Salvatore Bancheri, president of the American Association of Teachers of Italian, and Federico Masini, an Italian sinologist, and other well-known scholars. Participants have studied and discussed on subjects of the historical background of the establishment of the University, cultural policies of Italian communication, the spread of Italian in the world, the spread of Italian in the world, research prospects, foreigners’ Italian in the four days of six conferences.
On November 11, in her keynote speech on Italian Teaching in China's Higher Education System, Yang Lin introduced the status of Italian in China's undergraduate and postgraduate education systems and foreign language teaching and research organizations. She introduced the latest statistics, present situation and development trend of teaching Italian in China, the fact that Italian major is opened in Nankai University; the opportunities for development in non-Chinese Languages including Italian brought by China's Belt and Road Initiative and gave advice on how to make Italy more influential in China. Yang Lin's speech aroused widespread interest of the Italian audience, and the scholars and students enthusiastically asked questions. Pietro Cataldi, president of Siena's foreign university, also responded enthusiastically and expressed his hope to strengthen cooperation with the community of Italian education in China.
