New class in the fall: elementary Chinese

By Mike Caputo

During the spring semester, the second cohort of Sanda students at Rider continues to adjust to American culture. The Sanda students have been studying subjects such as American business, language and the arts. But it hasn’t been all work for the cohort though, because they have had the chance to experience things for the first time. Such experiences included the group’s first snowstorm and its first Super Bowl Sunday in America.

Unlike the Sanda students, students at Rider will soon have the opportunity to immerse themselves within the Chinese culture without having to venture to the other side of the globe.

After receiving approval from the Liberal Arts and Sciences Committee on Academic Policy (LASCAP), the Foreign Language and Literature Department will officially be offering an elementary 101 Chinese course in the fall of 2006, with a follow-up in the spring of 2007. Dr. Linda Materna, chairperson of the Foreign Language and Literature Department, said that Chinese studies are important for students today.

“The main reason is China is emerging and has a significant and explosive economy in the world,” she said. “One of Rider’s missions is to prepare the students for a global world.”

According to Materna, New Jersey has 18 high schools that teach Chinese. She felt the state would be “very interested in expanding” that number, especially to colleges and universities. Offering Chinese courses would satisfy many needs of students, ranging from education to business.

“One might imagine in the future we may be able to prepare students to teach Chinese,” Materna said. “Right now we’re trying to develop a long-term plan to implement a Chinese or Asian area studies program. The elementary course is just a starting point for Rider to expand to an area studies program.”

Another important group that the classes will impact is the Sanda cohorts. Materna and Dr. Min Min Wang, professor in the Communication Department, both believe that the newly approved courses would strengthen the connection between the Sanda and Rider students.
Materna said the Sanda students would most likely get more involved with activities on campus.

“If [Rider] business students learned a little [Chinese] they could communicate with the Sanda students,” said Materna. “Our goal would be to ask the Chinese students to help including tutoring, clubs and even excursions. The sky is the limit.”

According to Wang, the Rider students who would be taking the course would probably seek help from the Sanda students.

“I think that for Rider students they will become more interested in Sanda students and seek a conversational partner to start learning Chinese,” Wang said.

As course registration approaches, the department will be actively promoting the courses at Rider in the upcoming weeks. One of the main things that the department will promote is what the students would gain in the long run.

“It hasn’t started yet but we’re going to kind of blitz the campus,” said Materna. “[Also], you can be sure that if any employer sees you studied Chinese it will just make you dynamite.”