The Confucius Institute in Bangladesh has contributed a lot to building strong relationships between people of China and Bangladesh through language teaching, said Professor Jiang Yinlian, Chinese Director of the Institute.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua recently, Jiang said, "Learning language is the best way of building strong relationship and minimizing gap with people of different countries as it works like a bridge."

Jiang has been working for the last three years at the Confucius Institute at leading private North South University (NSU)in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, the first and so far the only one in Bangladesh.

More and more Bangladeshis are now showing interest in learning Chinese language, she said, adding that her students deemed it's aneed of time.

"In 2006 when I joined the Confucius Institute at NSU there were 20 to 30 students, now there are more than 100 students, which means people here are more and more interested in learning Chinese," said Jiang, professor of China's Yunnan University.

The Confucius Institute at NSU was established on Feb. 14, 2006.It was also the first in the South Asian region.

Jiang said some of the students even come from Bangladesh's southeastern port city Chittagong, some 242 km from capital Dhaka. They came every weekend just to attend the Chinese class as there is no good place to study Chinese in Chittagong, she said.

"My suggestion is that there (Chittagong) should have another Confucius Institute," said Jiang, who was honored by the Chinese Education Ministry with an award in 2008 for her contribution in teaching Chinese.

"I think the Bangladesh government also attaches importance in learning the world's number one Chinese language in terms of the Chinese-speaking population," she said.

"Actually, Chinese language is now more and more popular. Almost all middle schools in the United States have introduced Chinese as foreign language. It's a matter of need, they think they need this," said Jiang, who taught Chinese language in the U.S. for one year.

She said a number of English-medium middle schools in Bangladesh have already made learning Chinese compulsory after she initiated a course to train local teachers to teach Chinese for the first time in 2008.

She is planning to write a text book in Chinese, English and Bengali languages on teaching Chinese in Bangladesh so that Bangladesh people can learn the language more easily.

"We've already developed a friendship song using both Chinese and Bangladesh languages as our "Institute Song," which is also the first Confucius Institute song in the world in foreign language," Jiang said.

Jiang, who during her nearly three decades of services as teacher also taught Chinese language in Thailand, said, "Bangladesh people have their own rich culture which impressed me very much. It's interesting that Bangladesh and Chinese people share some commons in both cultures and languages."

"Both two peoples love to maintain close relations with their family members. And people even in Bangladesh uses some Chinese words like Cha (tea in English)," she said.

However, she expressed her surprise saying that still people in Bangladesh know very little about China and its rich culture. "In this connection we've a lot of things to do," she said.

Jiang, who has been honored here very much for her prime role in establishing the Confucius Institute on a strong base, said "I want to pass the rest of my life in teaching language and doing something for poor people."

Jiang, in her 50s, said her only son namely Jiang Yuan who is now in Beijing on completion of his higher study has also engaged himself in teaching foreigners Chinese language.

Jiang is leaving Bangladesh very soon after three years' service here. "I'm keen to return to beautiful Bangladesh in future and engaged myself in developing China-Bangladesh relationship," she said.