Friday, November 15, 2013

Sigur Center Tea Times Featured in China Daily

Aiming for 100,000
More American students are going to China to study under the 100,000 Strong Initiative and finding it to be a life-changing experience, Chen Weihua reports from Washington.
It was 4 pm and Chinese tea time at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University on a recent Thursday. Caitlin Keliher, a senior, was taking part in a group chat in Chinese led by the center's director Edward McCord, a professor of Chinese history.
The topics were mostly China related, ranging from studying there and learning Mandarin to Chinese warlords in the 1920s, a subject that is McCord's specialty.
Keliher, a double major in economics and Chinese who has studied the language since her final year at a high school in Boston, spent six months last year at the Minzu University of China in Beijing to hone her language skills.
"I had five hours of Chinese language class there every day and the progress was tremendous. But since coming back, my language skill has deteriorated, so I come here to practice," Keliher said in fluent Chinese.
Sitting next to her was Luis Rodriguez, a sophomore majoring in international trade with a minor in Chinese. Also speaking in Chinese, he said he started to learn the language in high school in Miami and plans to study in China next year……”

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