The Learning Chinese Craze-Actual Numbers?

I finally finished the post I referred to earlier: US post-secondary enrollments in foreign languages and the position of Mandarin.

Lots and lots of numbers and tables.

Some more figures, this time from Britain (or maybe just England – the source material’s not too clear about this): UK degree-program enrollments in foreign languages.

Cranky, ironlady, and others who know, what are your thoughts on the Chinese immersion schools that are sprouting all over the US?

A link to a recent article on one in Denver: http://www.denverpost.com/previous2/home/ci_10319643

I’m interested specifically in the goals of these programs, the texts and teaching methods they use, and their success rates in achieving those goals (I think it might be too early to tell).

Cheers,

Tomas

I wanted to post on this, cl. I read an article in the british press about the numbers, but it wasn’t in the online edition so I didn’t bother. Something along the lines of 'The numbers behind the headlines in the so-called ‘learning Mandarin craze’ '; that you think it’s really popular because ‘student numbers doubled’, but it’s still less than 400 undergrads studying Chinese.

Jive turkey, excuse me, I missed your post. I’ll get back to you soon with a few impressions.

[quote=“Jive Turkey”]
Buttercup, how good do you think the teaching quality is at the Confucius Institute? I’ve been wondering about this for a couple of years. In just a few years, at least on paper, the number of Confucius Institutes has grown very fast-so fast that one has to wonder how well they could maintain quality. I’d be really interested in reading your thoughts about the teaching at the Institute since you are a trained, experienced teacher.[/quote]

JT, my impressions of the teachers are generally ‘good’ with reservations. I get the impression it is incredibly competitive to get a placement. My 30-ish female teacher told us (we went out to dinner) that she had left her one year old baby in China with the grandparents because it was such a prestigious posting. She was very nice and personable and very ‘pro-China’ in a soft way, which was clearly part of her remit. At dinner (never in class), she asked me loads of questions about Taiwan.

The teaching style is similar to what I experienced at Shida, only there is a lot more enthusiasm there (sorry to say it, Shida…). It’s not particularly communicative, but the class sizes are small enough for us to ‘steer’ the class slightly :wink: We watch the video, discuss, watch again and repeat. Read the vocab and then read the grammar. We are supposed to prepare the topic for next week. Topics included ; children who are left home with grandma when people go to work in the cities, adultery (!), the lion in Chinese culture and art, the aging population in Beijing.

There’s more money there. They use the university facilities and there is a library and student centre with all sorts of equipment. The point is promote Chinese culture, not simply teach language.

The program itself is slightly absurd. They under-estimate (to be fair, most English language programs do too) horribly the amount of time it takes to learn Chinese. I can’t see how anyone who starts in the beginner class could progress. I did the ‘Advanced’ Class, which consisted of authentic 10-15 minute video clips; news, soaps, film clips, etc. This class is advertised as suitable for someone who has had 240 hours of tuition, which is clearly absurd.

The earlier classes used a boring textbook of the ‘usual’ type; dialogue, vocab list, sentence patterns, gap fills and other grammar exercise. Not as good as PAV Chinese; the same type of thing, but boring topics, no pictures or CDs.

So in conclusion, nothing groundbreaking, but a pleasant enough experience.

And a recent article on The Craze in Britain: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/11/content_9932720.htm

From the article:

Currently, there are 11 Confucius Institutes and 13 Confucius Classrooms in Britain.

Buttercup, do you know what the difference is between a Confucius Institute and a Confucius Classroom? One is an entire learning center, while another is just a satellite in a rented classroom somewhere?

thechinaexpat.com/5-reasons- … your-time/

[quote=“Tomas”]
Buttercup, do you know what the difference is between a Confucius Institute and a Confucius Classroom? One is an entire learning center, while another is just a satellite in a rented classroom somewhere?[/quote]

The Confucius Institute is an unholy alliance between the Chinese government’s Hanban, the British Council and various universities. It’s slightly creepy because they operate within public universities and are engaged in political activity by funding Chinese programs in British public education. I wonder if China would tolerate that kind of interference in its universities? I am fairly sure it doesn’t and wouldn’t. They use space on campus.

The Confucius classrooms are primary and secondary programs.

If only Taiwan had that kind of cash to spend and understood the role of language teaching as soft diplomacy. My Taiwanese Chinese teacher used to get really aerated about it.

[quote=“Buttercup”][quote=“Tomas”]
Buttercup, do you know what the difference is between a Confucius Institute and a Confucius Classroom? One is an entire learning center, while another is just a satellite in a rented classroom somewhere?[/quote]

The Confucius Institute is an unholy alliance between the Chinese government’s Hanban, the British Council and various universities. It’s slightly creepy because they operate within public universities and are engaged in political activity by funding Chinese programs in British public education. I wonder if China would tolerate that kind of interference in its universities? I am fairly sure it doesn’t and wouldn’t. They use space on campus.

The Confucius classrooms are primary and secondary programs.

If only Taiwan had that kind of cash to spend and understood the role of language teaching as soft diplomacy. My Taiwanese Chinese teacher used to get really aerated about it.[/quote]

Thank you for the clarification.

Yeah, I don’t see any great debate outside of greater China on the merits of simplified vs. traditional characters; Beijing-accented Mandarin vs. the Taipei accent, etc.