<p>I'm just going through some old files and here's some information that I compiled for a friend whose daughter wants to pursue Chinese through high school. I know that others here think that Chinese is important. And many boarding schools think that applicants think it's important...because everyone seemed to brag on their Chinese offerings this past year -- with one school winning the prize for pointing out that they offered Chinese first!</p>
<p>Anyway, for those who are interested and before I delete this information, here are some links to Chinese Language curriculum offerings and departments at some of the usual suspect boarding schools.</p>
<p>Episcopal High School, Alexandria, VA
<a href="http://www.episcopalhighschool.org/about/glance.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.episcopalhighschool.org/about/glance.html</a>
SOME MANDARIN: <a href="http://www.episcopalhighschool.org/academics/forlang.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.episcopalhighschool.org/academics/forlang.html</a></p>
<p>Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT
<a href="http://www.hotchkiss.org/AboutHotchkiss/index.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.hotchkiss.org/AboutHotchkiss/index.asp</a>
LOTS OF CHINESE: <a href="http://www.hotchkiss.org/Academics/Depa_ModernLang.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.hotchkiss.org/Academics/Depa_ModernLang.asp</a></p>
<p>Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ
<a href="http://www.lawrenceville.org/admissions/philosophy.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.lawrenceville.org/admissions/philosophy.asp</a>
LOTS OF CHINESE:
<a href="http://www.lawrenceville.org/on_campus/academics/catalog.asp?DisplayType=DeptTerm&Dept=Language%5B/url%5D">http://www.lawrenceville.org/on_campus/academics/catalog.asp?DisplayType=DeptTerm&Dept=Language</a></p>
<p>Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH
<a href="http://www.exeter.edu/admissions/147_162.aspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.exeter.edu/admissions/147_162.aspx</a>
CHINESE (CROSS-CURRICULAR OFFERINGS): <a href="http://www.exeter.edu/84_736.aspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.exeter.edu/84_736.aspx</a></p>
<p>St. George's School, Middletown, RI
<a href="http://www.stgeorges.edu/about/facts/%5B/url%5D">http://www.stgeorges.edu/about/facts/</a>
CHINESE (CROSS-CURRICULAR APPROACH):
<a href="http://www.stgeorges.edu/school_life/academic/default.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.stgeorges.edu/school_life/academic/default.asp</a> (see "Chinese"
on the pull-down menu)</p>
<p>St. Paul's School, Concord, NH
<a href="http://www.sps.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=6179%5B/url%5D">http://www.sps.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=6179</a>
LOTS OF CHINESE (CROSS-CURRICULAR TOO):
<a href="http://www.sps.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=6189%5B/url%5D">http://www.sps.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=6189</a></p>
<p>Taft School, Watertown, CT
<a href="http://www.taftschool.org/about/taftfacts/%5B/url%5D">http://www.taftschool.org/about/taftfacts/</a>
LOTS OF CHINESE:
<a href="http://www.taftschool.org/academics/courseofferings/deptcourse.asp?intDeptID=7&strDept_NAME=Modern+Languages%5B/url%5D">http://www.taftschool.org/academics/courseofferings/deptcourse.asp?intDeptID=7&strDept_NAME=Modern+Languages</a></p>
<p>Note that the Chinese offerings at all boarding schools seems to be expanding and more and more schools are developing depth with respect to Chinese/Mandarin offerings. Do not assume that this is static or view this as the accurate assessment of what schools offer next year or beyond. This should be a jumping off point to explore what's out there and encouragement that you're probably in luck if studying Chinese is important to you and you wonder if that's possible at boarding school.</p>
<p>middlesex is supposed to have an excellent chinese program, too.</p>
<p>What's the difference between cross-curricular and a normal class?</p>
<p>Hey, Choate has it to!!!</p>
<p>Andover has significant Chinese offerings as well.</p>
<p>cross-curricular - interdisciplinary. meaning, they not only offer the basics through the advanced, they then offer, say, an intensive chinese history course, or chinese poetry, or chinese painting.. or eastern economics, or maybe "the red scare, w/ emphasis on china/US relations" or possibly other activities (this is why I like exeter's french and andover's spanish)</p>
<p>Oh, I see.</p>
<p>Thanks. So cross-curricular is better?</p>
<p>does anyone who is chinese take chinese at BS.I noticed native spanish speakers taking spanish 300 level at exeter revisit.</p>
<p>Helen is taking AP Chinese and I think she lives in China. On the 07-08 Schedules thread she said she also wants to take French. She's going to Choate next year.</p>
<p>I am going to take ap chinese next year but not french. i decided not to take french.</p>
<p>NMH cross-cultural.</p>
<p>Westover has Chinese.</p>
<p>Tabor has Chinese!</p>
<p>Miss Porter's has an excellent Chinese program.</p>
<p>The Peddie School recently received a 20 million dollar donation to enhance their Chinese program. Does anyone have any details on it?</p>
<p>Blair has been offering 4 years of Chinese for several years. They are expanding the program.</p>
<p>Sounds like pretty much everyone has chinese. It's probaby a very good thing.</p>
<p>Next year will be St. Andrew's-Sewanee School's second year of offering Chinese. Students at SAS can also take college courses for free (and for credit) The University of the South which is right next door so if they exhaust the Chinese language offerings at SAS they can take courses at the University. Between SAS and languages at the University students have access to Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Latin, Greek and Russian.</p>
<p>mm, this is totally why i choose not to apply to Groton- i think that a school that can offer greek, latin, french, spanish,and i believe german (? correct me if im wrong)should most definitely be able to offer chinese as well! </p>
<p>haha but then again i might be kinda biased cuz im asian myself... :D</p>
<p>I notice that few, if any, schools offer Japanese. In the 1980s Japanese was the "cutting edge" language for those who were going to survive in the 21st century. Those of us who didn't take it felt like we were pretty much clueless regarding world affairs and we lacked vision for the new world order in which the world of commerce would be dominated by Japanese interests. </p>
<p>We also were expected to learn another language: a computer programming language or two or three. From Cobol to C+ to Pascal and so on. The common view was that one needed to understand programming in order to be computer literate in the brave new world. Few people realized that that was like expecting everyone who planned to drive a car to be able to rebuild a carburetor. Computer literacy soon became nothing more than an ability to point-and-click...a skill honed by many through the rigors of Solitaire and Minesweeper.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that I knew the Japanomania wouldn't have staying power or that it was silly for me to memorize my DOS user manual. To the contrary, I felt that all of that was the wave of the future. Just like everyone else. As before, I presently have no reason to doubt that understanding Chinese is going to be immensely and universally important. But I also won't be surprised if people looked back 20 years from now and marveled at our collective naivete.</p>
<p>That's why I consider Chinese language to be a "fad language" offering that's designed to meet a demand based on the students' anticipation of a need for Chinese language skills, and a desire on the part of schools not to be behind the curve should it mature into a true need. And certainly nobody will be hurt by pursuing it, so why not? But I can hardly take exception to Groton electing not to diversify in Chinese for the time being.</p>