New Mandarin Chinese Course Offered This Fall
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Michelle Tooker, Public Relations
610-359-5276
(Delaware and Chester Counties, PA)—For the first time, and in response to community demand, Delaware County Community College is offering a Mandarin Chinese course starting with the fall 2012 semester. Offered Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9 p.m., Elementary Chinese I (Chi 101) will introduce students to the fundamentals of Mandarin by focusing on the development of functional competence in the four skills (listening, speaking , reading, and writing), as well as Chinese cultural knowledge. Students completing this course will master the Chinese pronunciation system (Hanyu Pinyin), basic Simplified Chinese characters, and basic Chinese grammar. Course emphasis is placed on actual verbal communication. A second course, Elementary Chinese II (Chi 102), will follow in spring 2013.
In order to assist the practice and mastery of the language for students, this course is being offered as a Supplemental instruction (SI) course. There are three hours of class instruction plus two 50-minute SI sessions each week. The sessions are facilitated by a SI leader who will review course work and lead conversation practice activities. The SI sessions are required of all students enrolled in the course.
“Chinese is one of 15 languages designated by the U.S. Government as a ‘critical language’ which refers to languages that are critical to U.S. national security and economic competitiveness. These languages are often perceived as being too complex and difficult to learn for most English-speakers, and as a result, we have a shortage of people who are bilingual in the critical languages,” says Dr. Sabuur Abdul-Kareem, Assistant Dean of Communications, Arts and Humanities.
Chinese is spoken by over one billion people around the world, roughly one –fifth of the world’s population, mainly in Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Southeast Asia. While there are many dialects, Mandarin is spoken by about 70 percent of Chinese people.
If you are interested in an international career or want to increase your international/intercultural competence, consider studying Chinese with us at the College. “We hope that the evening format will meet the needs of both our full-time students and others interested in learning another language,” adds Abdul-Kareem. The College also offers two other critical languages, Russian and Arabic. In addition to language study, students can add certificates in Global Studies or Latino-American Studies-Spanish Language to their academic program. Students studying a critical language can also apply for the Critical Language Scholarship Program of the United States Department of State to study in intensive summer language institutes.
To register for this and other courses, please visit www.dccc.edu or call 1-877-912-DCCC (3222).
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