The School of Foreign Languages of Sun Yat-sen University is one of the earliest professional foreign language schools in China. Its predecessor was the English Literature Department founded by Dr. Sun Yat-sen as early as 1924. After 80 years of running a school, especially since the reform and opening up, the Department of Foreign Languages of Sun Yat-sen University has carried out a series of educational reforms, and has continued to grow and develop.

By June 1992, on the basis of the original Foreign Languages Department, Guangzhou English Training Center and Chinese Training Center of Sun Yat-sen University were merged to establish the School of Foreign Languages of Sun Yat-sen University.

The School of Foreign Languages of Sun Yat-sen University has four undergraduate majors in English, French, German and Japanese, five master majors in English language and literature, Japanese language and literature, French language and literature, German language and literature and foreign linguistics and applied linguistics, two doctoral majors in English language and literature, and a postdoctoral mobile station in foreign languages and literature.

The internationalization of the teaching staff of Foreign Languages Institute not only provides foreign teachers in various professional languages, but also introduces foreign senior scholars to join the teaching staff.

In recent years, Foreign Languages Institute has strengthened discipline construction, continuously improved the level of running schools and teaching quality, and trained a large number of high-level talents for the country. Over the years, graduates of Foreign Languages Institute have been welcomed and praised by employers.