Online Courses of WZU—A Cultural Bridge Between China and Italy

“I returned to Wenzhou at the time when it was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Italian students and colleagues, though far apart, have been closely following the pandemic in China and Wenzhou, sending me messages almost everyday, caring about my life and living, which has brought me great comfort during the time of home quarantine.” said Zhang Minlu, a teacher of teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages at College of International Education, WZU.

In the beginning of 2019, Zhang has been sent on a one-year teaching mission in Wenzhou University Italy Campus— Arezzo Branch, and returned in January, 2020. Affected by the COVID-19, Chinese teachers arranged for the academic year 2020-2021 couldn't make it to Italy on time for the spring semester starting in March. “Department head and Chinese language teaching head, as well as Italian students have contacted me for many times expressing their hope that I can go on with their classes. Suddenly, I felt a heavy responsibility on my shoulder.” said Zhang, “For Italian students, Chinese language is not a remote oriental language but a working language for their future career. Though they are highly motivated and enthusiastic to learn, their learning time is limited. As a teacher, it is my duty to make full use of the limited time to maximize teaching results. So early in the February video conference, I suggested providing recorded teaching videos about vocabularies and grammars, and leaving enough written and oral homework for Italian students so as to consolidate their learning effects to the largest extent.”

Entering March, things have got better in China, but gone wild in Italy, which has become the most seriously infected area in Europe. Given that condition, Wenzhou University Italy Campus has decided to carry out online and recorded courses. And Zhang, with rich teaching experience and her previous close interaction with Italian students, has made a great achievement in her online courses.

Zhang has recorded a two-hour teaching video for every grade every week. Together with the videos, Zhang has sent her Italian colleagues some other teaching materials, such as audios and practicing homework, which would be uploaded to the learning platform for every student. “It has been lasted for four weeks up to now. Students downloaded the learning materials from the learning platform, handed in homework, wechated me about their learning difficulties and helps they need. After communication and interaction, we are now all accustomed to this mode of teaching, which is efficient seeing from the written and oral homework students handed in.” Zhang said, “It is Wenzhou University's promise to Italy Campus that our cooperation won't be defeated by the COVID-19. In fact, even under this bad condition, our Wenzhou University’s staffs still spare no effort to communicate with relevant departments of Italy to push forward our double-degree cooperation program.”

（Reported by IL TEMPO CINA EUROPA)