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The Department of Multilingual Education at the School of Foreign Languages of Tianjin University was founded in 1971 as "Japanese Language Teaching Group", which became "Department of Japanese, Russian and German" in 1983 and was renamed in 1997 as "Department of Japanese". In 2022, the Department of Multilingual Education was established at the time of the foundation of the School of Foreign Languages of Tianjin University. At present, the Department of Multilingual Education offers language programs including Japanese, French, German, Russian, Spanish etc.

The Japanese teaching at Tianjin University has played an important role in the discipline of Japanese for universities in China. The widely-used textbook Japanese Language and its supporting material Japanese Reading (People's Education Press, 1978) and the Concise Japanese-Chinese Dictionary (The Commercial Press, 1983) co-written by the Japanese teachers laid also a solid foundation for the early Japanese language education in China.

In terms of teaching, many teachers of the Department have successively carried out the undergraduate teaching quality and teaching reform of Tianjin Municipality and the oriented research plan of Tianjin Municipal Education Commission. Our teachers have also been awarded the teaching achievement prize at provincial level, the prize of teaching competition for young talents of Tianjin, and were nominated for the excellent instructor for students' competition etc.

In terms of scientific research, the teachers of Department have obtained grants at national, provincial and ministerial levels such as the National Social Science Fund, the Humanities and Social Science Research Fund of the Ministry of Education, and the Philosophy and Social Science Fund of Tianjin Municipality, etc. They have also published a number of textbooks, monographs and high-level academic papers in journals indexed by CSSCI, SSCI, A&HCI, Scopus, ERIH Plus, etc. Our teachers have been awarded the Outstanding Achievement Prize in Social Sciences of Tianjin.

Responding to the call for teaching reform advocated by the University and the School, the Department of Multilingual Education actively contributes to the development and optimization of new disciplines. We are devoted to the creation of a series of courses for the "English + Japanese" undergraduate major, and fully engaged in the implementation of the master's programs of Japanese Language and Literature and French Language and Literature. Our teachers undertake also the optional multilingual and multicultural courses for all students of the university. Relying on the advantages of its diversity in languages, the Department is continuously focusing on interdisciplinary crossover and integration, and contributing to the TJU-featured area studies.