BARCELONA — Studying Chinese is one of the best ways to get closer to the culture, according to Albert Estrada.
“After going to China for the first time in 2018, I set a goal to go there as soon as possible to live and work, because I love the whole Chinese culture,” says the Spanish student studying at the Confucius Institute. He spent five years with Barcelona, Spain.
His trip was inspired by a Chinese friend.
“When I arrived in China, I was fascinated by the fact that it was a different world. It seemed like a wonderful place and the people treated me well. “I started studying the language,” he says.
The large differences between the two languages mean that Chinese people find some aspects of Spanish grammar difficult, such as verb conjugation, he says. However, Spaniards find not only Kanji but also Chinese pronunciation difficult.
“I wouldn’t say I speak Chinese now. I’m a student of Chinese. It’s not the same.” But the last few times I’ve been to China, I’ve been able to get by without relying on English. I did. He could shop, buy food and talk to people,” he says.
The Confucius Institute was established in Barcelona in 2009 as part of a collaboration between Spanish and Chinese universities. In addition to Chinese courses at 14 different levels, we also offer his HSK (Han Sheng Level Examination) exam, which is China’s official language proficiency test for non-native speakers.
Estrada is currently in fourth of six HSK levels and is one of around 50,000 people studying Chinese in Spain.
He emphasizes the importance of interacting with Chinese people both domestically and in China.
“Breaking down the language barrier is the first step. When they see that you’re learning the language, they feel more relaxed and it’s easier to build a relationship afterwards,” he says.
He spent two months in the country last summer and hopes to stay for three months at the end of this year to experience the Chinese New Year.