It's all Chinese to me

A valuable opportunity has been presented to DCU with the arrival in October 2001 of Lixin Xiao, a Chinese lecturer in English from Nankai University's College of Foreign Languages, Tianjin, China, who has registered for a PhD in English Language Teaching Methodology and Intercultural Studies under the supervision of SALIS lecturer Aileen Pearson-Evans.

The initial idea for a Chinese module grew out of discussions between Bill Richardson, Head of SALIS, Aileen and Lixin. Lixin is to receive a DCU scholarship for which he has agreed to teach a number of hours per semester for SALIS. He has suggested compiling a course that would combine Chinese language and culture. Since Japanese is being taught at DCU, it was felt that Chinese would be an attractive addition to Asian studies in the university.

SALIS is now offering classes in Chinese language and culture to students in the final year of the International Marketing and Languages, International Business and Languages, Applied Languages and MA in Intercultural Studies courses. Space permitting, staff may also apply. If there is a great deal of interest, SALIS will consider the possibility of offering the course again at a later for staff exclusively. So now is your chance.

The course consists of 3 hours per week, and will involve a combination of lectures, discussion seminars and multimedia. It will be interactive, with Lixin concentrating on making the language and the culture accessible for westerners who have little or no previous knowledge or experience of the East.

The language element will focus on both the writing system and spoken Chinese; you will learn how to communicate with Chinese people in basic everyday situations. However, what is language without the culture? Lixin will explore the Confucian value system underlying Chinese culture, as well as other elements such as history, geography, politics, social life, literature, acupuncture and traditional arts.

For a number of reasons, Chinese is an attractive addition to the existing languages 'menu' at DCU. China is the largest single economic market opening up to the west. The Irish Government is at present pursuing co-operation at different levels with the Chinese government and our own International Office has already established links with China. The development of Chinese at DCU is therefore very opportune.

In 2003 Ireland and China will host joint celebrations of each other's culture. So if you want to get a head start, this is the ideal opportunity.