The rising influence and impact of China on Oregon, and the importance of teaching about the Chinese language and culture, were the main topics at a hearing of the Oregon House’s Higher Education Subcommittee on Wednesday.
The hearing featured panelists from the University, Portland State University and Oregon State University who were asked to talk about programs that their universities offered and about the importance of China and learning Chinese languages, specifically Mandarin.
Mandarin Chinese is the fifth-most widely-spoken foreign language in Oregon, said Portland State University professor Patricia Wetzel.
The panelists said that all three universities have programs that offer students opportunities to work and study in China. Lundquist College of Business Dean James Bean said the school offered a seminar series on China for students and faculty, which culminated in a trip to Beijing and Shanghai, China. He said the college plans to continue the program.
Portland State hosts a sustainable land-use program and an international business program that is involved with Chinese officials, while Oregon State has close relations with universities in China, despite not having an East Asian studies program.
Panelists encouraged the subcommittee to start investing in Chinese education because it would be a benefit to Oregon economically and politically in the future. Political science professor Mel Gurtov of Portland State said his ability to speak Chinese helped bring down a lot of cultural barriers between him and the Chinese delegates who visit the campus.
“It builds friendship and trust like no other tool I can think of,” Gurtov said.
Stephen Durrant, professor of East Asian languages and literatures, said that 36 percent of the University’s graduating seniors in 2005 took at least one class in East Asian studies, while 161 students currently enrolled in first- or second-year Chinese.
However, in 2002 only 34,000 students in American colleges and universities were studying the Chinese language, while other languages like Spanish, French and Italian have hundreds of thousands of students, he said.
Durrant said the two main barriers to increased enrollment in Chinese language classes are the lack of high school Chinese instruction and the belief by many that Chinese is virtually impossible to learn.
“It’s no more difficult for a native Chinese speaker to learn English than it is for a native English speaker to learn Chinese,” Durrant said.
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