WHY STUDY CHINESE?

With close to 1.2 billion native speakers of Chinese ^[1], it is one of the most spoken languages in the world!  Did you know that Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language group which is a speech group that extends from northeastern India to northeastern China and many speakers are found in Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. Chinese is not a single language but a "language family" ^[2] and has many dialects (Cantonese, Shanghai, Fukienese, etc).

China is the second largest economy, the biggest consumer market in the world, and a crucial strategic partner of U.S. The United States and China have one of the largest trade relationships in the world with "bilateral investment and trade totaling $1.6 trillion annually". The benefits of learning and knowing Chinese are not limited to doing business in China. "Apart from China, Mandarin is also spoken in Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore. What’s more, all these nations have the fast growing economy both in terms of production and purchasing power." ^[3]

There is no question that learning Chinese would be helpful for any type of business or economic-related field but it would also be prudent to mention the cultural aspect of language learning. Chinese language and culture spans over 3,500 years which proves that there is a variety of literary and spoken languages, traditions, and ideals. The more you learn about the history of a language, the more you can understand words, expressions, and how people communicate in their daily life. 

CHINESE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON

Here at the University of Akron, students will be able to understand Chinese in predictable contexts, on familiar topics, as spoken by native speakers; be able to speak about everyday activities, interests, family, school, and job; to understand how the Chinese writing system works and be able to write the key vocabulary covered in the textbook. They will develop strategies for reading and understanding authentic texts in Chinese; and develop an awareness of the culture of Chinese-speaking people. We offer a wide variety of courses to fit all learners. Those with previous Chinese study can reference the chart below to find out which course will best fit them. 

No prior experience, no problem! Students can enroll in Beginning Chinese I and continue their study through the Intermediate levels!