Press Releases
Mandarin Chinese Offered at SOU
August 31, 2009
Beginning this fall, Southern Oregon University will offer Mandarin Chinese in collaboration with St. Mary’s School. Plans are also underway to expand the program in the future.
St. Mary’s School started offering Chinese three years ago as part of the Confucius Institute of the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban). St. Mary’s became the first Confucius Classroom (secondary school) in the United States to be a part of the Confucius Institute.
When St. Mary’s had an opportunity to bring a second Chinese language teacher to the school this fall, St. Mary’s School Head Frank Phillips approached SOU about collaborating to offer Chinese at SOU.
"We feel that a strong language program is critical to preparing our students in today’s global environment," said Dr. Daniel Morris, director of foreign languages in the Language, Literature, and Philosophy Department. "Chinese is an important addition to our language offerings, complementing our already strong programs in Japanese, French, German and Spanish."
With the addition of Chinese to the curriculum, SOU will be the only regional university in the Oregon University System to offer Chinese and Japanese.
The Beginning Mandarin Chinese class will be offered on the Ashland campus, from 1:00 to 1:50 on Monday through Thursday. It is listed in the SOU class schedule under foreign languages. The course will be taught by Zheng Ling, a native of China and a trained language teacher.
For more information or to enroll, contact the foreign language office at 541-552-6435 or email morris@sou.edu.
