“There are not enough Chinese language teachers in American schools” said Mara Rochon, a teacher from a public school in Baltimore, “with the development of US-China trade, it’s quite essential for our children to learn Chinese.” Carol Ann Dahlberg, co-author of the book entitled Language and Children: Language Instruction for an Early Start, Grades K-8, said: “There are a lot of problems in offering Chinese classes at schools, of which the most troublesome is the lack of professional Chinese teachers.”
America’s National Chinese Language Conference held by Asia Society opened in Chicago on April 30th, 2009. Shuhan C. Wang, executive director of Chinese Language Initiatives at Asia Society, expressed that the quantity and quality of Chinese language teachers remains the key bottleneck in Chinese teaching, and the need for specialized teachers is heightened in foreign countries. At present, most schools abroad are planning to offer Chinese language programs, for Chinese is growing in popularity among foreigners. Some foreigners even come all the ways to China to learn Chinese, because they cannot find a way to do so in their own countries.
It was also reported by China Daily on June 22.2009, that Mandarin Chinese was the favorite foreign language in American primary schools, with China playing a more and more important role in international affairs, but the big problem was that though the demand is there, the supply of professional Chinese teachers is not.
Carroll Smith from Texas, mother of a nine-year-old girl, said:” I’m keen on Chinese culture, and decided to make my daughter, Carolyn, learn Chinese. However I don’t think it is necessary to go to China to learn Chinese. With the rapid development of the internet, we have access to Chinese learning online. It also relieves the pressure for the demand of Chinese teachers.” Many foreigners have had similar thoughts, but are still not sure about the effectiveness of the internet education. It’s a question of whether distance learning is an effective form of language instruction.
With this question we interviewed Fred Rao who has years of experience in internet education and is the CEO of eChineselearning. He said:” Internet education greatly relieves the situation where there are insufficient Chinese teachers and it also offers more opportunities to learn Chinese. It’s very convenient for learners to arrange their life and study, and it’s also flexible for them to choose their preferred learning method. They can use online video applications such as Skype for live classes and one-on-one attention, which can be more effective than learning in large classroom settings. With the aid of internet video and voice systems, online Chinese education brings a distant land near, and facilitates free communication between students and teachers across the globe. With the present insufficiency of Chinese teachers, e-learning is a convenient and cost-effective way to learn Chinese.”
Davis, a teenager from Colorado, began taking classes with eChineseLearning.com a year ago and testifies to the merits of Chinese e-learning method. He said:” My Chinese has improved faster than I would have imagined. Teachers really do design the classes around my learning needs and interests. Having one teacher focusing all there attention on you in class is a very valuable experience. ”