My name is John Osborne and I began studying Chinese my junior year of high school. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to China my senior year and it was on that trip I decided that Chinese was going to be a big part of my life. I in fact chose to attend St. Olaf College because of its 20 years experience in teaching Chinese Language. As a freshman I declared an Asian Studies major knowing that if St. Olaf offered a Chinese major I would do that instead, but Asian Studies wasn't far off the mark. While I learned of the CIS program and expressed interest my freshman year it was not until I returned from studying abroad that I seriously considered the process.

I participated in St. Olaf's Term In China off campus program the fall semester of my junior year. The program took place at East China Normal University (华东师范大学) in Shanghai, China. In case I had any doubts before, this abroad experience reinforced my desire to study the Chinese language. After I graduate in May 2009, I will be returning to ECNU to teach English as a China Fellow for one year. Beyond that year anyone's guess is as good as mine as to what I will be doing.

Career Goals
Perhaps it was the out of class time that I spent with my high school Chinese teacher, Xiaoyu Chen, or my frustrations in dealing with a textbook that never taught me how to say the word blue in Chinese (蓝色; lánsè), either way I want to become a Chinese language teacher some day and help in developing a textbook method that better teaches Western learners.

Chinese Resource Network
One morning in January of 2009 I woke up with the overwhelming desire to start a website that would provide motivated language learners with an annotated bibliography of sorts of the most useful online tools. The goal of the website is not so much to provide these tools as it is a platform to inform students who are seeking extra language help or advanced learning. Of course it is also a platform which I can use to distribute some of my learning aids that I have developed through my undergraduate education (i.e. flash card decks). This website is called Chinese Resource Network and can be found at www.chineseresourcenetwork.com Due to the fact that a soon-to-graduate senior barely has enough time to finish his web portfolio, the website is not fully functional. But it is up, and I encourage anyone and everyone to check it out. But, please consider re-visiting in a few months.