Chinese challenge: crowds fill language classes despite difficulty of learning.Everybody, it seems, wants to learn Chinese. Both UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX and USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. are bracing bracing, n a resistance to the horizontal components of masticatory force. for a huge demand this fall in classes that combine language learning and Chinese business know-how. "It used to be that students taking Chinese language classes were heritage students or had friends with a Chinese background, but now you see students with no background at all," said Audrey Li, professor of East Asian Languages East Asian languages describe two notional groupings of languages in East and Southeast Asia:
But it's not easy. Students must learn upwards of 3,000 characters in the Chinese writing system Chinese writing system System of symbols used to write the Chinese language. Chinese writing is fundamentally logographic: there is an exact correspondence between a single symbol, or character, in the script and a morpheme. . While it can take at least three years to just reach the conversational stage, China's position as a global power has provided a lure for career-minded students. "More and more students are enrolling in Chinese programs for practical reasons," said Yihua Wang, Luckman Distinguished Lecturer at UCLA and the director of a course taught in Shanghai over the summer. Wang, who began her program six years ago, requires at least a third-year proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. But demand is still rising (this year 50 students applied for 20 available spots) and she is thinking of expanding the program. |
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