Studying Mandarin is “IN”

As I was walking home from the Salem Athenaeum on Saturday after my Chinese class, a couple of neighbors greeted me.  Commenting on my Mandarin Chinese teaching, one mother of a child who is taking my Chinese class said, “Your timing is perfect, and I am glad she (her daughter) is interested in learning it.”   Another woman who is a professor at Harvard Extension School said, “At Harvard now, Mandarin Chinese is the most popular language.”

In the last couple of weeks, my husband and I have been visiting several prep schools.  All of them offer Mandarin in their world language program.  To my surprise, one school even encourages their freshman students to take Mandarin instead of French.

I have this sense that Mandarin is “IN” now, and am very happy that I can be of service to those who want to study it.  This is further confirmed by today's Associated Press’s report on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s visit to Beijing: 

Geithner planned a speech Monday at Peking University assessing the global economy and U.S.-China relations. He spent two summers at the university as a college student learning Mandarin Chinese.

At a briefing previewing the trip for Asian journalists, Geithner referenced those ties, saying he had taught Chinese while in college and had a "long personal interest" in the country. But he insisted that while he had worked very hard at his Chinese language studies, he was not proficient.

“I cannot actually speak Chinese with competence,” he said.  “I did study though for a long time, very hard.  I practiced my characters very carefully.”

To read the full article, go to http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/05/31/geithner_calls_for_closer_economic_ties_with_china/

I agree:  to be competent with Chinese, one needs to study long and hard and must practice the characters very carefully.  However, at Panda Land we encourage you start learning with your own interests, your own objectives, and at your own pace.