The University of Dodoma (UDOM) in collaboration with Chinese Confucius Institute has started offering Chinese language training to Tanzania’s immigration officers
The move is meant to plug a communication gap between Tanzanian officials and Chinese people, who visit the country.
Dodoma Regional Immigration Officer Ally Dady said that the aim of the training was to empower immigration officers in their daily tasks.
He said due to the increase in Chinese native speakers entering the country, the Immigration Department officials have been exposed to a language barrier, “So, this is part of our efforts to equip officials with Chinese language.”
“In our everyday roles, we are faced with various challenges; thus, to know more than one language will be a great weapon in the discharge of our responsibilities. As you know, the Chinese have been entering the country in large numbers... if we learn their language we will work in a friendly manner instead of using sign language,” Dady said, when speaking soon after conferring certificates to immigration officers.
He, however, urged other civil servants in the country to learn Chinese language in order to help them to communicate with the Chinese community.
One of the officers who graduated from a course in Chinese and received the highest grade, Kenerd Malya, said that training will help to increase effectiveness in performing their daily duties.
Malya said that one of the challenges they have been faced with in executing their duties did not know the Chinese language due to an increase of the Chinese in the country.
“Right now we will do the job in a much easier way because we can talk to them compared to how it was in the beginning... initially when we met with such a case involved people who did not speak Swahili or English but now we can speak Chinese and I hope to learn more about the language,” Malya said.
The course was for three months and included police officers and 12 immigration officers in the region.
No comments:
Post a Comment