The University of Macau (UM) today (31 July) held a closing ceremony for the 29th Portuguese Language and Culture Summer Course in the University Hall. This is the first time that the Portuguese Language and Culture Summer Course has been held on the new campus. This year’s summer course attracted 274 students from around the world. During the three-week intensive course, participants lived with a dozen of Portuguese teachers, communicated with one another in Portuguese and had a firsthand experience of UM’s unique Portuguese culture in a residential college. All participants said that the course greatly improved their spoken Portuguese and offered them an opportunity to immerse themselves in the culture.

At the closing ceremony, a student delivered a speech in Portuguese. Other participants presented what they had learned from the course through singing and dancing. One participant from the mainland city of Tianjian said the course greatly improved his spoken Portuguese and gave him an opportunity to meet like-minded friends from different universities, adding that he and his friends all liked the tranquil learning environment of the campus and looked forward to coming back to the campus to attend next year’s summer course. Another participant from the United States said that the course included a variety of interesting activities, such as Portuguese folk dance and visits to local museum, which not only enhanced the participants’ understanding of the Portuguese language and culture, but also acquainted them with the historical and cultural aspects of Macao.

UM has been dedicated to producing graduates with bilingual proficiency in Chinese and Portuguese for more than two decades. Its excellent faculty team comprised of experienced scholars provide students with a multifaceted learning experience. The course has achieved the most fruitful outcomes, which is attributed to high quality curriculum, learning atmosphere in residential college, Macao’s unique multi-culturalism and leisure events.

The Portuguese Language and Culture Summer Course was launched in 1986. Participants come from around the world, including mainland China, Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Timor, Ethiopia, the United States, Hong Kong, and Macao. In addition to Portuguese classes, the course also included a variety of interesting activities, which are designed to give participants an opportunity to experience the unique blend of Chinese and Portuguese cultures in Macao and to increase their understanding of the historical, social, economic, political and cultural aspects of Macao. The course covers four levels, comprising Beginners, Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. In the past ten years, the Portuguese Language and Culture Summer Course has trained approximately 3,000 students from around the world, among which one third are local students, making a great contribution to the fostering of local bilingual talents. This year’s course received support from the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau.