ISU Bengal

Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: News

ISU has attempted to add a Chinese program to their language department in the past, but each time failed due to lack of student interest. This time, however, the program has generated enough interest to grow beyond the two beginning-level Mandarin Chinese classes that became available to ISU students last year, and will be offering an intermediate level class for the spring 2008 semester.

Melvin Ballard, currently the only Mandarin Chinese professor at ISU, said that he hopes the program will keep growing and eventually become available as a minor.

"It's an important language to learn, but it's very difficult," Ballard said.

He explained that Chinese is particularly difficult to learn for English speakers because the English language has no relation to Chinese. According to Ballard, the difficulty of the language deters many people who are simply trying to fulfill their language requirements.

Although it is difficult to learn, Ballard believes there are a few reasons why Americans might be interested in learning Chinese.

"It's important historically," Ballard said. "Historically the Eastern world seems to be ignored."

Ballard said that learning an eastern language opens up opportunities for people interested in world history as well. He also teaches East Asian history and culture classes at ISU that could potentially become part of the Chinese minor.

Besides its historical importance, China is becoming increasingly important in world economics today. According to the Idaho Department of

Commerce, China is the number one destination for Idaho's exported goods, receiving around percent of Idaho's total exports.

"(China) seems to be fairly important in regards to Idaho," Ballard said. "It seems to me (learning Chinese) could be very important for business majors or political science majors."

Ballard also said that many people in China are learning the English language and learning about American culture to help trade relationships, and that we might want to know a little about them for these same reasons.

ISU economics professor, Scott Benson, Ph.D., gave his take on why China is becoming so important in world economics today.

"A while ago they saw the benefits of a market economy, and finally their government institutions are allowing that to happen," Benson said.

While China is roughly the size of the United States, it is home to about 1.3 billion of the 6.6 billion people in the world - about one fifth of the world's population. Since China has a massive population base, their economy has been able to grow at a rapid rate recently.

According to Benson, with a quarter of the worlds population speaking chinese, choosing a suitable lauguage course is a "no brainer."

Chinese 101, 102, and 201 will be available during the spring 2008 semester at the Pocatello campus of ISU, along with East Asian culture and history classes. Mandarin Chinese is the only dialect of Chinese currently taught at ISU.

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