By Zayed Alzyoud
The University of Jordan (UJ) has launched a new research group titled “Arabic–CJK Lexical Borrowing,” a step that deepens UJ’s expanding work in comparative linguistics and highlights the growing academic dialogue between Arabic and Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
The group brings together an international circle of scholars, researchers, and graduate students. Among them are Dr. Lee Jong-Ai from the Department of Asian Languages at UJ; Prof. Yoshiko Hanbara from Japan’s Graduate School of Teacher Development; Dr. Tseng Xianfei from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics; Dr. Liu Wenxia from Cheongju University; Dr. Wang Djun from Tongren University of Applied Sciences; Dr. Chi Jong-Yi from Chungnam National University in Korea; Dr. Asil Zaidan from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies; and Prof. Yang Songfang from Shenyang Normal University, who also serves as the Chinese Director of the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Confucius Institute in Amman.
Through research spanning linguistics, language teaching, and translation, the group will explore how words move across cultures, how meanings shift, and how centuries of contact between the Arab world and East Asia continue to shape language today. Its findings are expected to inform future curricula, provide fresh perspectives for translators and educators, and open broader pathways for intercultural communication and collaborative research.