Queue up, queue up: the Confucius Institute at the University of Malta (this is not a joke) is holding a briefing session on Chinese scholarships for Maltese people

Published: February 6, 2014 at 5:34pm

Did you know that we have a Confucius Institute at the University of Malta? I didn’t. Confucius Institutes are the Chinese communist dictatorship’s version of the Alliance Francaise or the British Council – except that this Chinese government organization seeks to promote values and principles that are entirely alien to western democracy.

Anyway, the University of Malta published this on its website yesterday:


Scholarship Schemes from China (21 Feb.)

The Confucius Institute at the University of Malta is organising an event, aimed at both University Students as well as the general public, on the evening of Friday 21 February 2014, in order raise awareness about the various scholarship schemes from China available to Maltese people to study Chinese on the Chinese mainland and to give information about the HSK (the standard Chinese Proficiency test). The activities of the Confucius Institute for 2014 will also be announced.

The event starts at 1815hrs, and will include half an hour (c. 1900hrs to 1930hrs) during which the Chinese Ambassador and the Hon. Minister of Education Evarist Bartolo will answer questions from the audience. A reception (c. 1930hrs to 2030hrs) will follow. The event will be taking place at Student House on the main campus of the University, Msida.

Persons who would like to attend are requested to confirm their attendance as soon as possible by sending an email to Ms Jacqueline Theuma or to phone her on +356 2340 3407.




39 Comments Comment

  1. H.P. Baxxter says:

    Confucius say: Man who goes on sculler ship becomes galley slave.

  2. kanna says:

    All I need to learn in Chinese is “F*ck off”.

    • Pete says:

      My dear, in these cases Google Translate can be wonderful! You can immediately begin your Chinese lessons: 他妈的关闭 pronounced Tā mā de guānbì

      • Antoine Vella says:

        That’s why English is such a popular language. Just two short syllables to say what in Chinese requires six.

    • Banana republic .... Again says:

      It would be good to know how to say, “Iz-Z*** rega’ nqataghlna d-dawl”, too

  3. edgar says:

    Confucius say: man with hole in pocket feels cocky all day.

  4. vanni says:

    And should you decide to further your education, the place to do so can only be :
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JRtFyLiOnE&feature=player_embedded

  5. Confucion says:

    I suggest it should read “…both University students and the general public” not “both University Students as well as the general public”.

    Bad English from the highest institution of language teaching in the country which advertises itself as a centre of excellence for the teaching of English to foreigners. Perhaps the drafter of the notice might do better at Mandarin.

    [Daphne – Yours isn’t much better, I’m afraid. Your use of ‘both’ is redundant, too. A simple ‘and’ suffices, because that is exactly what ‘and’ means. “Both university students and the general public” is a reference to two particular university students and the general public. That ‘general’, incidentally, is also redundant. It’s enough to say ‘the public’. Sorry to be boring about this.]

    • Confucion says:

      Not boring at all – just correct. On re-reading, I’m happy to admit you’re right. I was seduced into retaining the use of “both” to try and point out that “as well as” cannot follow “both”. “And” can follow “both” in such cases as “both the play and the film were good”.

  6. NGT says:

    Confucius say: man with willy in biscuit tin, f*cking crackers.

  7. Starship Enterprise says:

    Confucius say, “Man who walks in airport sideways is going to bang cock.”

    Confucius say, “Man who stands on toilet is high on pot.”

  8. H.P. Baxxter says:

    I don’t know about you round-eyed gullible Westerners, but I’ve sorted my name tag for the first day at Hainan University.

    Middle Kingdom, here we come.

    https://scontent-b-fra.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/1794709_575948015822949_1121175582_n.jpg

  9. Paul Galea says:

    During a recent visit to Vietnam I was introduced to the ten commandments as outlined by Confucius. These were sculptured on a huge stone slab more than 800 years old.To my surprise they were very similar to our ten commandments with the exception of the first one , which unlike ours point out The State as the first priority for the loyalty of citizens.I guess the Chinese sorted out the church/state tussle several hundred years before us in the west.
    Perhaps their values are alien to our culture……..but this does not mean that ours are better. Definitely theirs are by far older.

    [Daphne – Instead of going to Vietnam to find out about China from the Vietnamese, I suggest you do some reading of your own and find out for yourself. China’s values have led to untold tragedy for millions into the present day. European values are far from perfect, but they are focused on respect for the individual as enshrined, after centuries of evolution through war, oppression and suffering, in the European Convention on Human Rights. Chinese values, conversely, are focused on the collective. The individual is dispensable and is sacrificed to the whole.

    This attitude preceded, as you note, the tragedies of the 20th century, but is precisely the cultural outlook which made those tragedies and the long survival of communist oppression possible. You say that China’s values are “older”. That simply means those values have not evolved, which is exactly what went wrong. Why should you be surprised that Confucian rules are similar to the Ten Commandments? Those Ten Commandments are not ‘ours’, as you call them, but Moses’s, and Moses predated Confucius by a thousand years at least. Also, Moses was not European and his Ten Commandments were delivered on his passage through the Middle East. I absolutely cannot bear it when people who never read anything at all – for which take most Maltese – travel to the far ends of the earth and ‘discover’ partial information from intermediaries which they then report back home as novel discoveries.]

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Would it be in bad form to say I’m in love with Daphne’s brain?

      • M. Cassar says:

        Bad form or not I must second that, seeing as how rare it is for one to find another brain able to argue and mull issues over.

    • Ta'Sapienza says:

      I think it should be Moses’.

      [Daphne – Here we go again. No, it should not be Moses’. It should be Moses’s, and it is pronounced Mow-Sis-Is and not Mos-Is. The apostrophe which signifies the possessive form is, with nouns, not followed by an s only in the plural. A proper noun (names of places and people) can by definition not be in the plural, therefore it takes the form of an apostrophe followed by an ‘s’. The rule on whether to put an ‘s’ or not after the apostrophe is not related to whether there is a final ‘s’ in the word, but to whether that final ‘s’ denotes the plural. Where the plural is not formed by the addition of an ‘s’ or ‘es’, the rule follows that for the singular form – as with ‘children’s’.

      Examples: St James’s Palace and not St James’ Palace; Francis’s car and not Francis’ car.]

    • Paul Galea says:

      Before you embark on a journey of revenge dig two graves…..Confucius

  10. M. Cassar says:

    Wel,l if we must quote Confucius…

    ”The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.”
    Confucius

    Ehemmm

  11. ken il malti says:

    All these soon to be freshly minted Maltese citizens and passport holders and their children are all entitled to a free university education in Malta.

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