Ismael is one of 20 Chinese language students, said her decision to abandon her plans to study Political Science and International Relations and instead learn the Chinese language, was taken after hearing about the Confucius Institute and its Ethiopian graduates who went on to have successful professional careers.

"Chinese language is becoming a widely spoken language, with 1.3 billion Chinese Mandarin speakers in China and millions of others found in nearly every areas of the world, so it would be very useful to speak Chinese especially in Africa since many Chinese are coming here and they are developing the continent, so it would be very useful to learn Chinese," said Ismael.

The rapidly increasing Chinese community and the hundreds of Chinese firms engaged in business activities in Ethiopia initially compelled the AAU to open the Confucius Institute in 2013, being governed under the College of Humanities, Language Studies, Journalism and Communications (CHLSJC).

The rapidly growing interest from Ethiopians to learn Chinese language is a challenge that Yang Ying, Chinese Director of Confucius Institute at AAU, is striving to meet.

"At present there are lots of Chinese companies, they need a lot of local students who can speak in Chinese urgently, I'm afraid and worried that I don't have enough students to provide for the Chinese companies," Yang said.

Yang also said she has noticed a considerable interest from Ethiopian students to learn more about China and its culture, an interest which Confucius Institute hopes to satisfy by providing scholarship opportunities to Ethiopian students.

"We have a lot of scholarships for students, the first one is the summer camp, the students can go to China for 15 days, they can appreciate and experience Chinese culture for the first time and also we have scholarships for the students to study in China for one year and half a year respectively," Yang told Xinhua.