威廉·格赛尼乌斯是德国哈勒大学的知名教授，精通多种东方语言。1822年末，他偶然结识了两名来此漫游的广东青年水手，想到利用他们在本国初建汉学学科。在普鲁士当局支持下，二人被派去供格赛尼乌斯调遣。教授则安排两名德国博士与他们搭伴，计划在三年内，使中国人学会德语、德国人学会汉语。试验虽然失败，但这毕竟是目前最早可考的汉德二语互教互学的尝试，不乏文化史意义。本文基于原始档案，考证这段不为人知的史事经过。

Wilhelm Gesenius was a renowned professor at the University of Halle in Germany and a specialist in various oriental languages. At the end of 1822, he happened to get acquainted with two young Cantonese sailors who were traveling in Germany. He came up with the idea of establishing Sinology as a scientific discipline in Germany with their assistance. Under the support of the Prussian authorities, the two Chinese were placed under the supervision of Gesenius, who paired them with two German doctors. The plan was for the Germans to learn Chinese and for the Chinese to learn German over the course of three years. Unfortunately, this experiment failed to produce the expected results. Nevertheless, it is regarded as the earliest verifiable attempt at mutual language instruction between Chinese and German, which is of cultural-historical significance. Based on primary archival sources, this paper examines the causes and effects of this relatively unknown historical event.