Shuhan Wang, executive director of Chinese Language Initiatives at Asia Society commented on the recent enthusiasm towards the Chinese language. "This is a critical time in America. There is a change of government administrations. We have suffered an economic meltdown, and also there is swine flu....We need to be competitive to deal with the world and make an effort to understand one another."
Hanban, headquarter of the Confucius Institute in Beijing, is a resource in providing teachers, and its reach is growing internationally as well as in America. In April 2008, with the support of Hanban, there were 180 Confucius Institutes worldwide, partnered with universities, which are non-commercial institutions for teaching the Chinese language and promoting Chinese culture abroad. In April 2009 there are 296. Gaston Caperton, College Board president, told the conference that Hanban in partnership with the Board, had provided 200 teachers to America and facilitated visits to China by 1,600 U.S. educators. Of the top 20 Confucius Institutes in the world, four were in the United States.
Beijing Normal University and East China Normal University are two of the institutions in China which provide student and faculty exchanges and host programs for American students’ summer study on fellowships from the U.S. State Department. The process of getting teachers of Chinese also takes strong leadership, according to Robert A. Davis Jr., director of the Confucius Institute in Chicago and Manager of World Language & Studies for Chicago Public Schools. Leadership also flourishes in the more western and rural setting of Utah. Its governor, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., has led his state to the forefront in teaching Chinese. "While math and science remain critical studies," he said.
Jon M. Huntsman Jr. said, "Language is going to be an important driver in education. Four or five years ago, only a few of our schools had a dozen students. We have put together a critical focus on Chinese, and next year 82 schools will offer Chinese to 6,000 students. We see people lining up at the door to get into these programs."
Liu Chuansheng, chairperson of the University Council at Beijing Normal University, reflected on the above-mentioned situation. "There have been 300 million Chinese studying English, and I know that there are more and more Americans beginning to learn Chinese. I remember when I came to the U.S. there were only 250 schools offering Chinese classes. When I left in 2005, there were already 2,400 schools that expressed the intention of offering Chinese classes. Today more than 700 schools are offering Chinese classes, and 4,500 have expressed an interest to do so." 120
With the growing desire for Chinese language and cultural education, Chinese language teaching in America is encountering some challenges, with the quantity and quality of Chinese language teachers as the key bottleneck. The need for specialized teachers in the United States is heightened by the increasing popularity of early language learning — kindergarten through 8th grades. A further national coordination of efforts is also called for.
Editor: Wen Yi
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