Elham Sadat Mirzania is a Chinese language lecturer at Allameh Tabatabaei University in Tehran, Iran. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China and Iran have shared a very long cultural relationship through history via the ancient Silk Road. The effect of this interaction has appeared in many fields, such as literature, art and music in both countries. But Chinese language training wasn't established systematically until about 20 years ago in Tehran.

When I started to study Chinese language as my bachelor's degree major in 1996 in Tehran, I never knew how important this language would become in the near future around the whole world.

I was among the first group of Chinese language students in Iran. As soon as I started to learn the language, the fascinating Chinese civilization and culture, the mysterious Chinese characters greatly absorbed me. The complicated puzzle of Chinese characters gradually started to be solved as I understood the logic and relationship between the signs their combination and the meanings of the characters.

My interest in the language and culture led me to pursue further studies at Beijing University afterwards. Doing research, writing, translating and editing jobs continued after earning my Ph.D. But later I decided to go back to my country to teach Chinese language and culture in the Chinese Department of Allameh Tabatabaei University.

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