The Department of Western Languages was established in 2006, developed from the French Teaching and Research Section established in 2002. Increasing the number of different languages offered in 2004 and 2006, the school added comprehensive elective courses of German and Spanish. In order to facilitate the management of these courses, the school combined the management of the teaching tasks of German, Spanish and French and changed the name of the French Department into the Department of Western Languages. The Department now offers courses in the above-mentioned three languages which are taught by 24 teachers with eight teaching French, seven teaching German and nine teaching Spanish. These positive, energetic, highly educated, knowledgeable young teachers, all who possess a strong working spirit, have experience in studying or working abroad in countries such as France, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Mexico and other Western countries.
The Department of Western Languages is mainly responsible for the French, German and Spanish language teaching to the undergraduates, but also offers French, German and Spanish public elective courses and the second language for the master’s program. The French major is taught by some outstanding young and senior academic teachers, including one associate professor, five lecturers, and two assistant professors. Among the faculty, six have PhDs and two have MA degrees in French from elite universities such as Wuhan University, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Peking University, Sun Yat-sen University, University of La Rochelle, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III, and Université de Paris VIII. Teachers in the German major are energetic and highly educated with seven full-time teachers, two assistant professors and five lecturers. Six teachers with PhD degrees in German Studies graduated from elite universities such as Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Stuttgart, Tongji University, and Shanghai International Studies University. The Spanish major has a highly educated and international group of young teachers with strong teaching abilities. Nine of them are full-time teachers including one associate professor, three assistant professors, four lecturers (one foreign teacher) and one trainee lecturer. Six of them have doctorates and three have their MA degrees. All of these teachers graduated from renowned universities or research institutions like the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Shanghai International Studies University, Nanjing University, Universidad de Granada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, University of Alcalá, and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. The research fields vary from linguistics, literature, translation, and regional country studies. The teachers also received teaching achievement commendation of Guangdong province many times.
The French major was established in 2012, aimed at cultivating students’ solid basic language knowledge of French and some basic skills including listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. Students learn much about French history, culture, policies, economy, society and some relevant subject knowledge with great and comprehensive quality, flexible thoughts, quick adaptability, solid knowledge, skilled translation performance, a broader international horizon and stronger multicultural communication ability. These inter-disciplinary French talents can engage in international communication, translation, research, teaching and management in departments like foreign affairs, trade, culture, education and tourism. The French major has signed the inter-school cooperation and exchange agreement with well-known institutions in France such as the Paris School of Higher Arts Management, SciencesPo Aix, and University of La Rochelle, and established many exchange projects. This major greatly focuses on the practice of students, building internship practice bases with institutions like the Shekou Nanfeng Social Work Service Association, Shekou overseas personnel service center, Nanshan International Exchange Center, Euroa business company and Alliance Française.
In 2018, the German major was established in Shenzhen after being approved by the Ministry of Education. It was linked with the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, aiming to cultivate high-quality foreign language applied talents with a solid German language foundation, skilled practical ability like listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. They have been educated with a firm grounding in Chinese-Western humanistic ideals, broad international vision and strong multicultural communication ability. These talents know more about the policy, economy, society, culture, history, science and other fields of German-speaking countries, and they can engage in international communication, management, teaching, science research and secretarial works in some departments like foreign affairs, industry, trade, culture, education, press and publication and tourism. Adhering to the idea of constructing international schools, the German major has signed the inter-school cooperation and exchange agreement with the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Ruhr-Universität Bochum and accadis Hochschule Bad Homburg. They collaborate with each other to cultivate talents and carry out a series of exchange activities including term exchanges and summer study program. With the support of the high-quality social service platform and resources of the School of Foreign Languages, SZU, students majoring in German have the opportunity to carry out professional internships and social practical activities in the International News Center of Xinhua News Agency, Foreign Affairs Office of Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, Shenzhen Daily, Shenzhen International hi-tech achievements Trading Center, Shenzhen University Affiliated Education Group, Nanwai Education Group, Shenzhen Shekou overseas personnel service center, Nanshan International Exchange Center and other official department and institutions.
The Spanish major was set up in 2018 after being approved by the Ministry of Education, aiming to cultivate professional talents with a solid language foundation and rich social and cultural knowledge of Spanish. They have a high English level with a firm grounding in humanistic ideals, broad international vision and strong multicultural communication ability; they can engage in international communication, trade, translation, teaching, research, management and other works in some departments like foreign affairs, trade, culture, education, press and publication and tourism.
Based in Shenzhen with an international outlook, the Spanish major aims to explore the pathways to cultivate international talents. It has established a cooperation relationship with a total of seven schools in Spain and Latin America including the Autonomous University of Madrid, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, University of Seville, The University of Alicante, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche and Universidad de Piura. Exchange students can go on an exchange program for six months or one year. Cooperating with the Autonomous University of Madrid, there is a language cultural research camp every summer each year, and excellent students can obtain funding. This camp aims to help students broaden their horizons, increase their professional knowledge, and cultivate the ability of multicultural communication.
The Department encourages students majoring in Spanish to actively take part in competitions at all levels to promote their teaching and learning. Students have been awarded prizes in many national competitions including the national speech contest of “Foreign Research and National Talents Cup” for college students, the national university Spanish dubbing competition, the national reading competition of “Foreign Education Cup”. Meanwhile, the Spanish major is a degree that focuses more on the internship for practical teaching. There are some educational internship bases like Shenzhen Nanshan Foreign Language School, the Affiliated High School of Shenzhen University, elementary school, Nanshan International Cultural Exchange Center and other government departments practice base, Shenzhen Zema Translation Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Yangtao Translation firm, Great Sports Co., Ltd., and Jiangsu Shunyu Information Technology Co., Ltd. Moreover, some consecutive interpretation tasks and escort interpreting tasks (e.g. long-term activities: Shenzhen hi-tech Fair and China Cup International; short-term activities: the Education policy dialogue between China and Central/Eastern Europe and the Basketball World Cup) have provided more opportunities for the professional development of students. In the recent three years, students have served at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, Wuhan Military Games, International Cigar Expo and other activities, earning high praise.
