Newsroom

On August 29,  one of our Honoree Alumni, Doug McDonald, wrote an op-Ed reinforcing the importance of global exchange in this time of increasing global tensions and worldwide uncertainty. Often maligned in the news and the repeatedly straw-manned and misunderstood,  Confucius Institute programs go a long way towards helping students understand and communicate in a critical foreign language as well as providing the ability to exchange cultures and ideas on a sub-national level outside the boundaries of increasingly tense foreign and economic policy discussions.

Doug’s Op-Ed, which details his time teaching sociology in Iraq all the way to his decision to start learning Chinese in his 70s, argues that “language is a key that opens the door to another culture and is a way to understand other people, to become aware of similarities, as well as differences.” Check out the rest of the op-ed here.