University of Hawaii At Manoa for Chinese?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I'm considering UH Manoa because I plan on majoring in Chinese and I've heard that the school has a really good Asian Language program. Which makes sense due to the large percentage of Asians in Hawaii.
I know all the cons about UH Manoa (the lack of focus on academics, the administration, the dorms, etc) so I don't need to hear anymore on that. But if anyone has any experience with Manoa's Chinese department, I'd love to hear what you thought of it.</p>

<p>And just in general, knowing UH Manoa's bad rep, and it's Asian Language Department's good rep, would it be worth my going there?</p>

2

<p>I was actually considering it for the same reason, but lost some interest after hearing about the academic atmosphere and the supposed unwelcoming attitude of the island population towards mainlanders.<br>
More info would be nice :)</p>

3

<p>coming from Hawaii, I can see why you’d think that the island’s population isn’t very welcoming towards mainlanders. The only people that would really cause trouble would be the native hawaiians or grouchy filipino people. On average, the UH student should be pretty laid back, especially about academics, but as long as you keep an open mind, don’t treat hawaiians (citizens) like they still live in the 16th century, and are willing to try things like surfing, eating japanese food, etc. you’ll be fine. As for the department, I can’t comment at all about it but it’s true that they do have an above average asian language department.</p>

4

<p>If you’re looking to practice your language outside of the classroom, I think there are places with a much higher % of Chinese immigrants. I lived in Honolulu for several years, and it seemed like folks from Japan, Korea, & Philip. were much more prominent than Chinese. Check out schools in San Francisco, Vancouver, and Toronto if you want to get max opportunities to speak it outside the classroom…which is a much faster way to learn it.</p>

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<p>@ Schmaltz You’re exactly right, I do want to practice Chinese outside of the classroom.
With what you’ve said about more Japanese/Korean/Filipinos in Hawaii than Chinese, I have another question:</p>

<p>Which would be a better major: Chinese or Japanese?
I’m interested in learning about a bajillion languages, so the language I major in doesn’t really matter to me. But what I want to know is which language people think would be more practical to major in.</p>

<p>For Chinese, well, China’s becoming hugely influential politically and economically. A position as a translator for a company doing business with China seems like the probable career path for that language. Or something federal due to China’s political climate.</p>

<p>For Japanese… Uh, well, I haven’t given this one as much thought. But, I guess: Japan is very prominent in technological stuff, so probably another position as a translator with a company…</p>

<p>Input/Opinions are appreciated. =)</p>

6

<p>The Chinese program at UH is surprisingly small. If you go on the website for East Asian Languages and Literature, you’ll see that the Japanese faculty vastly outnumbers the Chinese faculty. Chinese at UH seems to have a huge business bent, with even a series of language classes offered specifically for Chinese in a business context.</p>

<p>If I were you, I would think long and hard before majoring in a language based off of practically. Japanese and Chinese (and Korean, if you want to throw that into the mix) are very different languages with extremely different feels and sounds. While you might think now that you’d be okay with any language, you’d be surprised at what a difference it could make in your happiness when you’re taking upper-level literature courses in a language you love versus a language you tolerate or even dislike.</p>

7

<p>You could always take both Japanese and Chinese; after all, their characters overlap significantly. :)</p>

<p>I am proficient in Japanese, and I can tell you that it’s the polar opposite of English in just about every aspect. I’ve heard that Chinese is more similar to English in terms of grammar, but there are more characters that you would have to learn than if you studied Japanese.</p>

<p>Either language would have its own practical applications. If you’re interested in politics, Chinese might be marginally better; if you’re interested in economics/business, Japanese might be a better fit.</p>

8

<p>I’m a current student at University of Hawaii-Manoa majoring in Chinese language and literature; hopefully my opinion will be of some interest here. I’m a haole (hawaiian for “white boy”) originally from New York. I relocated to Hawaii in 2010 to begin pursuing the Chinese B.A. after considering similar programs at UC-Berkeley and UCLA. Some decisive factors for me include its proximity to China, exotic locale with abundance of natural beauty, and large local Asian representation-- among other factors I will mention in a moment.</p>

<p>To give you some frame of reference regarding my personal background within higher academia, I am also a transfer student, having successfully completed two semesters at top-tier Grinnell College before transferring to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I earned my first Bachelor of Arts degree in the field of International Studies.</p>

<p>To answer your questions regarding the quality of the Chinese program at University of Hawaii-Manoa, previous comments noted the small size of the Chinese department and also the low position of the university within undergraduate rankings. Those are considerations, but I say more importantly look at the quality of professors within the Chinese faculty. If you’ll look at the UH-Manoa Chinese department website at <[EALL</a> :: Chinese Section Faculty](<a href=“http://www.hawaii.edu/eall/chn/faculty.html]EALL”>http://www.hawaii.edu/eall/chn/faculty.html)>, you’ll notice that the majority if not all of the full professors and associate professors within the Chinese department have done there postgraduate/doctoral work at Stanford University, UC-Berkeley, and/or Peking University, all consistently ranked within the top 10 schools to study Chinese.</p>

<p>Also of note is faculty member Tao-chung Yao, co-author of the highly acclaimed Integrated Chinese textbook, widely used as the standard Chinese instructional program within the American university system, for those who aren’t familiar. Impressively enough, the same textbook was also recommended to me by my language instructor in China while studying abroad there this summer.</p>

<p>Also attached to the University of Hawaii-Manoa is the East-West Center, a prestigious Asian studies research organization established by U.S. Congress in 1960. It was originally proposed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and later established by President Eisenhower. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to visit last year and delivered a policy speech praising the center. See <[Clinton:</a> ‘America’s future linked to future of Asia Pacific region’](<a href=“http://www.eastwestcenter.org/news-center/east-west-wire/clinton-americas-future-linked-to-future-of-asia-pacific-region/]Clinton:”>http://www.eastwestcenter.org/news-center/east-west-wire/clinton-americas-future-linked-to-future-of-asia-pacific-region/)>.</p>

<p>If you have any specific questions about the Chinese program at UH-Manoa, feel free to send me a message. I encourage you to apply-- admission to the University itself is relatively less competitive when compared to similar quality programs, for example Stanford and Berkeley. Be prepared though, living in Hawaii and visiting there are two very different things-- something called “island fever” is common for natives to the mainland US who’ve relocated here. I recommend asking around and doing more research about that-- it’s definitely a different pace of living here. For me, it’s everything I need, and the proximity to China makes it ideal-- also the people are lovely and the aloha spirit pervades. As anything in life, the experience is what you make of it. If quality of Chinese program is your main consideration, UH-Manoa should absolutely be a contender on your list of prospectives! Good luck.</p>

9

<p>“Encounters” is a newly-released Chinese language program, . One of the lead authors is Cynthia Ning, associate director of the Center for Chinese Studies at U. Hawaii. It is being published in collaboration with Yale University Press, and I believe, the program is going to be implemented at Yale. </p>

<p>[Lead</a> Authors | Encounters: Chinese Language and Culture](<a href=“http://encounterschinese.com/lead/authors]Lead”>http://encounterschinese.com/lead/authors)</p>