The University of Macau (UM) held an online opening ceremony for its 34th Portuguese Summer Course. This year’s course continues to attract students and professionals from all over the world.
Through video conference and pre-recorded videos, Ambassador Paulo Cunha Alves, consul general of Portugal in Macao and Hong Kong; Prof Rui Martins, vice rector of UM; and Prof Dora Gago, head of the Department of Portuguese, welcomed students and highlighted the advantages of learning Portuguese for academic and professional purposes. José Pascoal, coordinator of the course, introduced the course and mentioned that this year’s course has attracted over 180 students from all over the world, including mainland China, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, Australia, France, Portugal, Angola, and Macao.
Language classes feature activities designed to help students improve their Portuguese speaking skills. Classes at some levels include one-hour class per day to help students grasp critical linguistic features of Portuguese. There are also many theme-based courses, covering a wide range of topics, including literature, linguistics and translation, history, society, film, language education, education, gastronomy, and music.
The videos of gastronomy and music classes were prepared in collaboration with UM Creative Media Laboratory and the Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement, along with the support of Casa de Portugal (the House of Portugal) and the Associação dos Macaenses (Association of Macanese). Students can access the teaching videos and language resources on Moodle, and their progress in the tasks is followed by a teacher. Gastronomy and music classes allow students to acquire cultural knowledge and engage in linguistics tasks while mastering six recipes from six different Portuguese-speaking countries and learning Portuguese songs.
This year's summer programme is supported by the Higher Education Fund, which sponsors qualified local students studying at higher education.
