To enhance the understanding and knowledge of Chinese culture among local Chinese language teachers in Sri Lanka, increase the proportion of cultural content in language teaching, and deepen Sri Lankan students’ cultural identity with China through language learning, the Sri Lanka Local Chinese Language Teacher Cultural Training Camp, hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka and jointly organized by the Lumbini Confucius Classroom and the National Institute of Education (NIE) of Sri Lanka, was held at the NIE from December 11 to 12, 2025. The first culture camp hosted over 120 Chinese language teachers from across the island. It was also announced that the 2026 culture camp would hold more intensive training sessions, aiming to cover local Chinese language teachers from all schools across Sri Lanka. Outstanding participants of the culture camp were informed that they would have the opportunity to travel to China for a two-week Chinese culture training program to further enhance their foundational knowledge of Chinese culture.
This culture camp focused closely on the core needs of local Chinese teachers. Leveraging the teachers’ unique advantage of having a deep understanding of Sri Lankan students’ learning styles, cultural backgrounds, and thinking habits, the program set the improvement of Chinese cultural literacy as its core objective and key content. Through systematic special cultural courses and immersive teaching practices, the camp helped teachers systematically master the essence of the Chinese language and culture, thereby solidifying their foundation in cultural teaching.
With this foundation, teachers were better equipped to deeply integrate cultural elements into their instructional design. This enabled them to create Chinese teaching plans that were both knowledgeable and culturally inspiring, while remaining relevant to the local cultural context. Ultimately, the initiative significantly enhanced classroom appeal and teaching effectiveness, allowing students to comprehend the deeper connotations of Chinese culture while learning the language.
The holding of this culture camp not only injected strong cultural impetus into the local Chinese teaching workforce and consolidated the cultural foundation of local Chinese education, but also built a solid bridge for China-Sri Lanka cultural exchange, opening a new chapter for people-to-people exchanges and educational cooperation between the two nations.
The opening ceremony was held at 9:00 AM on December 11 at the Kannangara Auditorium Hall, National Institute of Education (NIE), Maharagama.