The whole world is getting in on the Learning Chinese Craze.
From a country I have never spelled before, but which is located just to the west of China, Kyrgyzstan: 200 Kyrgyzstan students to learn Chinese in 2008
Very interesting piece on very young children in Denver who are studying in a Chinese immersion school (These schools [...]
Entries from August 2008
August 29, 2008
The Learning Chinese Craze: August 27 Updates
August 24, 2008
Update: The Number of Post-Secondary Enrollees in Chinese Language Programs in the US
Pinyin News recently posted a comprehensive analysis of the number of students enrolled in Mandarin language programs here: US post-secondary enrollments in foreign languages and the position of Mandarin.
The number of students enrolled in Mandarin classes grew by 51% between 2002 and 2006…to a whopping 51,582 students.
Meanwhile, there are 822,985 students enrolled in Spanish classes.
I’d [...]
August 18, 2008
The Number of Chinese Learners in the USA
The number of actual Chinese learners around the world, and in the USA, is widely misreported and largely unknown. I keep reading articles that quote 30 million learners. I’m really not sure where all of these learners are, unless someone made a mistake and confused Taiwan with Thailand and so counted 6 million public school [...]
August 18, 2008
The Chinese AP Test in the United States
2007 was the first year the AP exam was offered in Chinese and Japanese.
Like much of the learning Chinese craze, things aren’t as rosy as everyone behind the craze would like them to be. Link: Results of US AP Exams…
(Thanks to www.pinyin.info for the excellent article. Pinyin.info is an essential site for all serious Chinese [...]
August 14, 2008
The Bamboo Plant on My Desk
About two months ago, my wife returned from an afternoon of shopping with a present for me.
It was a small bamboo plant for my office.
She watered it once, then left it to me to water.
I got involved in a busy week and let the plant’s base get a bit dry.
My wife found out and told [...]
August 2, 2008
Chinese Programs in American High Schools
There’s an article here about a two week summer Chinese language program for high school students in Princeton, New Jersey.
It looks like the program is quite effective in getting students excited about learning Chinese. One part of the article raised a few questions in my mind:
In the Level 2 class, the students learn how to [...]
