A CIS major proposal consists of four parts. Description of the major, rationale (or the "why at St. Olaf" paragraph), an annotated list of courses that apply towards the major, and thoughts on the senior project (the final project description is not necessary in the proposal process, just evidence that the student has thought about it.

When the written proposal is finished (and has survived Mary's red pen), the major canidate must recieve approval from a faculty review commitee (FRC). The persons present at an FRC are the students advisor, the CIS staff, a reference librarian, a faculty member outside the area of study, and two students (one student who is completing the CIS major and one student who is beginning the process). After the FRC the major is deemed academically feasable, and all that remains is the student completing what was proposed.

Below is my digitized proposal:

Description of Major:

Roughly a quarter of the world’s population lives in The People’s Republic of China, which means that roughly a quarter of the world’s population can, to varying degrees, speak Mandarin Chinese. An even larger proportion of the world’s population can read and write the Chinese language. Taking this into account I believe it is very rational to study the Chinese language. Through the study of modern Chinese literature and media, this major will develop a level of Chinese language ability higher then what St. Olaf currently offers. Anyone who has studied a foreign language will tell you that understanding the culture and historical background of that culture is key to developing an advanced level of language proficiency. This major then will fall into two categories: language and culture.

My ultimate career goal is to teach Chinese language in the United States, either at the high school or college level. This major will take me closer to that goal in two ways, it will provide me with a high level of linguistic ability while at the same time clearly stating my interests and area of study on my degree. I am truly passionate about studying the Chinese language and to finally be able to say “I am majoring in Asian Studies and Chinese Language” without any guilt of presenting a technically false statement, will make the proposal process more than worthwhile.

Rationale:

St. Olaf College’s mission statement expresses the desire for its students to become “knowledgeable citizens of the world”. While global citizens can get away with only speaking English, I believe St. Olaf wants students to find themselves in the “community member” category as opposed to the “tourist” category. I believe becoming fluent in both the language and culture of China not only fits with St. Olaf’s mission statement, but also has the potential of promoting understanding and smooth communication between the greatest power in the East and the greatest power in the West.

St. Olaf offers entry level Chinese language courses culminating in a Semester spent at East China Normal University in Shanghai for one semester. But higher level courses are hard to find. Thus my major will make use of all the Chinese Language courses offered at St. Olaf while supplementing the higher level course work with independent studies modeled after other private Liberal Arts colleges that do offer a Chinese Language Major. This major also has the potential of becoming a model should St. Olaf ever decide to expand its Chinese language department and offer a major in Chinese Language.

Courses:

As stated above 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. Ind. Study Newspaper: (level 300) This independent study will be similar to the Literature one listed above. The two differences being, no more English during discussion and the selected texts will be weekly articles from major international Chinese language newspapers. The topics in these articles will differ from week to week to provide the student with as much diverse exposure to different vocabularies as possible.

Culture 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.

Senior Projects:

Project 1: Chinese Arts and Leisure

-2 works of calligraphy; kaishu and xiangshu

-English description on the process of writing the calligraphy

-Written instructions of playing Mahjong. Chinese  English

-Essay of Mahjong in China. English 5-10 pages

Project 2: Chinese Exposition

-1 Text Translation. Chinese  English

-1 Write Chinese styled Essay. Chinese  English

-1 Write Newspaper Article. Chinese  English

Project Evaluations:

It has been recommended that I ask three professors to do professional evaluations of my senior projects and have these three evaluations be part of my portfolio. One would evaluate my calligraphy, on not just an aesthetic level but also judge my level of understanding the art form. An accomplished Chinese calligrapher or a Chinese professor with sufficient background knowledge can perform this evaluation. The second evaluation would be on my Chinese translation ability. The third evaluation would then be of my Chinese composition ability; any St. Olaf professor with knowledge of the Chinese language can perform either of these two evaluations.