<p>What is the largest difference? Which is more useful? What are the pros and cons of each? Which is more practical in the job-seeking world? </p>
<p>I am half Chinese and I speak Chinese fluently.</p>
<p>^ Sorry, I don’t have an answer but I’m going to tack on something :)</p>
<p>I’m interested in the difference too. But I’m white and don’t speak any Chinese. I’m taking a Chinese course next year (senior year) to see if I like it. If I do, because I already love their culture, I may double major with business and minor in Spanish.</p>
<p>Business/Chinese or Business/EAS</p>
<p>:) Thanks for letting me tag along on your question sophie!</p>
<p>Chinese major: Has a greater focus on language and literature; a major usually has to take four years of language courses, some literature courses (sometimes courses in film or popular culture), possibly a year of classical Chinese, possibly a Chinese linguistics course; more of a humanities focus. Often, the courses in pre-modern Chinese history are taught in the East Asian dept. and the courses on modern Chinese history are taught in the history dept.</p>
<p>East Asian Studies major: Commonly, only two years of language are required (sometimes, three); China-related courses taken in a number of fields (politics, history, economics, religion, art history, etc.); usually, more of a social sciences focus, though some schools offer two tracks (humanities or social sciences)</p>
<p>Both majors usually require an East Asian history survey or two terms of Chinese history. Often if you concentrate on China, for example, you’d be required to take at least one course focused on another East Asian country (e.g., Japan or Korea). Majors in both usually spend some time studying abroad.</p>
<p>Which of these is more useful depends on what you plan to do. Both of these majors could be combined with another field.</p>
<p>Zapfino is incorrect when it comes to East Asian Studies language requirements it differs per school. A top university’s East asian studies program will require 4 years of a language, the program you are talking of seems oddly identical to Columbia’s EALAC vs East asia program.
Sophia I’d suggest an East asian studies major unless you plan to get a phD in Chinese or become a translator. An EAS major is usually more flexible depending on the school so you can end up still focusing on Chinese, or political science, history, literature etc. The problem with a lot of Chinese majors is that at the upper level literature courses, at MANY not all mind you, the courses end up being half English-half Chinese because of the fact that without a firm understanding of Chinese history and culture, a lot of literary devices, chengyus, similes etc cannot be understood very well. If you have excellent grades and scores I highly suggest you look at Princeton, Stanford, Michigan, Yale, and Cornell. The Cornell CAPS program is very good if you want to be involved with Chinese politics, its 3 years on the cornell campus a semester at Beida and a semester in DC. Its a very good program. Another program in the works is at Johns Hopkins which is a 5 year MA with their nanjing center. This one is supposed to come into being in the next 2 years from what rumors say. Also an East Asian studies degree will more than likely have you take two languages, since you are fluent in oral chinese you will probably be placed in the heritage speaker track which is focused on reading and writing.</p>
<p>“Zapfino is incorrect when it comes to East Asian Studies language requirements it differs per school. A top university’s East asian studies program will require 4 years of a language, the program you are talking of seems oddly identical to Columbia’s EALAC vs East asia program.”</p>
<p>BJ, I distinguished interdisciplinary East Asian Studies major programs from Chinese Language major programs in broad terms. It is somewhat common for interdisciplinary East Asian Studies programs to require only two years of a language. I also indicated that sometimes three years are required. So, yes, this differs per school. Here are some schools that only require two years of a language for their East Asian/Asian Studies majors: Wesleyan, Cornell, Wisconsin, Dartmouth. Indiana, Penn, Washington U, Michigan, USC, Hamilton, Oberlin, Mount Holyoke, Emory. If anything was incorrect, it was using the term “sometimes” in reference to requirements for three years of a language, which is actually fairly common. Clearly, a requirement for only two years of Chinese is inadequate.</p>