My Upcoming Chinese Class

fudawei

January 18, 2008, 07:09 PM posted in General Discussion

My University (University of Nebraska: Lincoln -- USA)  recently woke up, looked around and panicked because they really had nothing substantive in the way of Chinese language instruction.  Nothing much outside the realm of language either, save for a couple nice history classes.  The chancellor remedied that by establishing "The Confucius Institute" on campus -- the noble first step in creating an enduring presence in our curricula.  

 

In addition to their main staples, they are trying to build some community support by offering a few modest non-credit classes in Beijinghua Mandarin.  We start next week, with two more levels promised after that.

 

Modest is the keyword here.  It costs $150 bucks and it runs for 12 classes.  I can't imagine they will get very far in that period of time.   Frankly, I think I'm well beyond that point -- but ya never know.  I might pick up something.  In any case, I suspect the real-life feedback I'll get from my efforts here will make it worthwhile.

 

In any case, I feel obligated to support the effort, since I was one of the persistent voices screaming for this sort of program.  Now that they're listening, the ball is in my court I guess.

 

I'll keep ya posted.