Chinese
The Chinese program offers three majors, Language and International Business, Language and International Health, and Modern Language, and two minors, Chinese Studies and East Asian Studies. Learning Chinese means to develop an ability to communicate directly with nearly one fifth of the world’s population. China has the second largest economy in the world and plays a major role in the international affairs. A good knowledge of Chinese is helpful for your career in any fields. Traditional Chinese culture has tremendously influenced the East and Southeast Asia and greatly inspired the western peoples. A learning of Chinese culture and the language will open a new perspective for you to look at the world as a whole.
Why Chinese?
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Communication
Chinese is spoken by over 1.3 billion people living in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and diasporic Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia, North and South America, and Europe. Learning Chinese means to develop an ability to communicate directly with nearly one fifth population in the world. In addition, China is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Chinese is an official U.N. language (along with Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish). This emphasizes the relevance of learning Chinese in the world context.
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Cultural Understanding
China is often considered as the longest continuous civilization and the Chinese the longest continuously used written language in the world. Traditional Chinese culture, from its philosophy, religion, literature to martial arts and cuisine, has tremendously influenced the East and Southeast Asia and greatly inspired the peoples in the other parts of the world. Learning Chinese language not only helps you to appreciate and understand this culture and its history, but also opens you a new perspective to look at other civilizations, including the one in which you are living.
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Career Opportunities
China has the second largest economy in the world and plays a major role in the international affairs. Graduates with proficiency in Chinese are well positioned in the fields of business and finance, diplomacy and national security, science and technology, law and political science, philosophy and arts, tourism and translation, and much more. A good knowledge of Chinese will ensure you to join them for a successful career in future.
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The Relative Easiness
Learning Chinese is not as difficult as many people thought. Chinese has an uncomplicated grammar. It has no verb conjugation and no noun declension. All these needs, of course, are perfectly satisfied in relatively simple ways. The basic sentence order is subject-verb-object, similar to English. A large number of the key words in modern Chinese, such as the terms for state and politics, health and medicine, science and technology, economics and business, even philosophy and literature, are formed a translation of English concepts. Although memorizing Chinese characters looks like a challenge to some of you, the Chinese ideographic writing system provides you with a unique visual beauty at the same time.
All of the factors mentioned above will make your experience of learning Chinese pleasant and enjoyable.
What Does It Offer?
- Three Chinese-related major tracks:
- International Health / Chinese
- International Business / Chinese
- Modern Language / Chinese
- Two minors:
- Chinese Studies
- East Asian Studies
- Extra-curricular activities, including the regular meetings of Chinese Language Club, Chinese movie series, the Spring Festival and Moon Festival parties, and more.
Contact information
Giving to Chinese
Clubs
Faculty
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Chinese Faculty
Chinese
Yanming An, Ph.D.
Professor of Chinese & Philosophy
Email: yanming@clemson.edu
Office: 614 Strode
Su-I Chen, Ph.D.
Principal Lecturer of Chinese; Director of Language Lab
Email: schen@clemson.edu
Office: 230A Daniel Hall
Ling Rao, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer of Chinese
Email: lingr@clemson.edu
Office: 361 Humanities Hall
Yanhua Zhang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chinese
Email: yhzhang@clemson.edu
Office: 304 Strode