As stated in the proposal, the courses in the major will fall into one or both of two categories: Language and Culture.

Language Courses:

1. CHIN 252: This is the last course offered in Chinese Language instruction at St. Olaf College. Because of the pre-requisites this one course listed represents 6 semesters worth of study.

2/3. Study Abroad: The study abroad program offered by St. Olaf for students who study Chinese language includes four courses: three intensive language courses taught in Chinese and one culture course taught in English. In addition to these courses, full immersion, living in an international community where English is not standard or always present, contributes to the language development of the student. But for the purposes of this major the courses listed can be boiled down into two sub-categories: sound and visual.

ECNU Sound: Two of the language courses taught at ECNU focus on the sound aspect of learning Chinese. Translated these courses are titled, Listening Comprehension (tingli) and Spoken Chinese (kouyu). All language courses were fully taught in Chinese with student participation/responses in Chinese.

ECNU Visual: The visual aspect of the Chinese language is reading and writing. One course was offered with this focus translated as Intensive Reading (yuedu). All language courses used textbooks and had written assignments in Chinese.

4. Ind. Study Literature: At some point in the study of a foreign language a student must transition away from textbooks and move in the direction of personal study through primary sources. Fortunately for Chinese language students thousands of publications in Chinese are printed every day. This independent study would focus on post May 4th literature in China. The student and Professor will agree on 7-8 selections from Chinese novels or short stories and read through the original unaltered text, with discussion in Chinese and English for complete comprehension.

5. CHIN 351: Fortunately the St. Olaf Chinese Dept. offered a 4th year level Chinese course the second semester of my senior year. This course pushed students to continue developing their language ability through reading newspapers, critically watching films, and classroom discussion in Chinese. The students were not only pushed by the demands of the coursework, but in class by their peers with similarly high proficiencies of Chinese.

Language Courses:

6. Modern Chinese Literature: This course was taught in English translation. Because the readings used demanded knowledge of the historical and cultural context this course could easily have fallen under a different department. The course started with readings from the literary movement that brought China out of writing in archaic prose and ended with readings from authors who wrote in the mid-90’s.

7. ASST Sen. Seminar: (level 300) This course will allow advanced research in a area related to China. My hope is to use my Chinese language abilities in assisting in my research. This will provide a great opportunity to develop a specialized vocabulary relative to my research.

8. REL Buddhism: Many aspects of Chinese culture are entwined with Buddhist religious practices. To claim proficiency in Chinese language or culture without understanding the basics of this religion would be inappropriate.

9. HIST Modern China: FLAC Studying modern Chinese history serves two purposes. It allows you to understand current China while at the same time forces you to understand the older customs and histories. Through taking the FLAC component I am exposed to primary sources from authors ranging from Lu Xun to Mao Zedong.

10. ART Chinese Calligraphy: This course combines both culture in language as no other class can. While the benefits of developing better eye-hand cordination and an artistic eye for Chinese calligraphy are invaluable in their own right. The hidden value of being able to read works of calligraphy has a close connection with my proposed major and personal goals.

11. ASST 275 Research Methods: Any student wishing to pursue an independent or seminar class will benefit from having a research methods class. St. Olaf’s library will not necessarily have all the resources needed for my proposed independent research classes. Having learned to use WorldCat and other library resources will prove invaluable.