Expert: Terry Thatcher Waltz - 1/18/2006

Question
Dear Terry,
Is there a good school to study Chinese in the US?
Is there a recognized authority in the business of teaching westerners to read/speak/write Chinese?
How does one become the world best Chinese interpreter and translator without having chinese parents?

Thank you!  

Answer
Hi Nikto,
There are quite a few schools that offer Chinese at the university level. I'm prejudiced toward Georgetown, because I went there, but there are lots of other programs. Remember, though, you are NOT going to master Chinese by doing an undergraduate degree; to really get control of the language you'll need to live in a Chinese-speaking environment for a couple of years at least.
I don't think there's a recognized authority in the teaching business. Actually, Chinese teaching lags behind English teaching to foreigners in methodology, although there is a lot of work being done.
Finally, the best Chinese interpreter I know (who is Canadian and white, BTW) had the good luck of learning Mandarin and Cantonese as a teenager (about age 14) with native speakers, just "hanging out". He is fairly brillant, to be fair, but the key is having started early and being exposed to many different topics and situations with real Chinese speakers.

Good luck!