Another way to learn Chinese:Confucius Institute

Confucius Institute (Chinese: 孔子学院; pinyin: kong zi xue yuan) is a non-profit public educational organization affiliated with the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China,whose aim is to promote Chinese language and culture, support local Chinese teaching internationally, and facilitate cultural exchanges.

The Confucius Institute program began in 2004 and is overseen by Hanban (officially the Office of Chinese Language Council International). The institutes operate in co-operation with local affiliate colleges and universities around the world, and financing is shared between Hanban and the host institutions. The related Confucius Classroom program partners with local secondary schools or school districts to provide teachers and instructional materials.The Confucius Institute is sometimes compared to language and culture promotion organizations such as Portugal's Instituto Camões, Britain's British Council, France's Alliance Française, Italy's Società Dante Alighieri, Spain's Instituto Cervantes and Germany's Goethe-Institut.

Controversies about the Confucius Institute in the US, Australian, and Canadian press include criticism that unlike other government's language and culture promotion organizations, the Confucius Institutes operate within established universities, colleges, and secondary schools around the world, providing funding, teachers and educational materials.This has raised concerns over their influence on academic freedom, the possibility of industrial espionage,and concerns that the institutes present a selective and politicized view of China as a means of advancing the country's soft power internationally.

Confucius Institutes (CIs) promote and teach Chinese culture and language around the world. CIs develop Chinese language courses, train teachers, hold the HSK Examination (Chinese proficiency test), and provide information about contemporary China.The director of the CI program, Xu Lin, stated that CIs were started to cater to the sudden uptick in interest of the Chinese language around the world. They also provide Chinese language teaching staff from Mainland China. As of 2011, there were 200 such teachers working in the United States.

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