Chinese Salon launched for Mandarin learners

Wang Peng (center), assistant teaching professor of East Asian languages and cultures at Georgetown University, leads the first Chinese Salon hosted by the Confucius Institute US Center Tuesday night in Washington. The newly launched program provides a platform for advanced Mandarin students to gather and discuss Chinese culture and society. Yuan Yuan / for China Daily

Along with the Chinese New Year, a new Chinese Salon program initiated by the Confucius Institute US Center (CIUS) held its inaugural event on Tuesday, offering advanced Mandarin students in the Washington area free classes as well as opportunities to communicate with other Mandarin speakers to sharpen their language skills.

"Hopefully through this new program, we offer the opportunity for those who are interested in China and in learning Mandarin to gradually build up a community based on their common interest," said Gao Qing, executive director of the Confucius Institute US Center, who is also an assistant professor of international arts management at George Mason University and the director of the university's Confucius Institute.

Prior to the Chinese Salon, only a handful of groups — mostly formed casually and at the grass-roots level — offered such an opportunity for Washington's Mandarin students.

"In Washington DC, there seems to be a lack of opportunities for young professionals to practice their Chinese, specifically non-Chinese-born individuals," said Zachary Bomberger, the center's program assistant who organizes the event.

Providing this kind of platform is the mission of the Confucius Institute, a non-profit public educational organization affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education and similar to the UK's British Council and Germany's Goethe Institute.

"We knew there was a considerable amount of advanced Mandarin learners around this area, but we were not sure of their number or actual needs," Gao said.

Last fall, through Wang Peng, assistant teaching professor of East Asian languages and cultures at Georgetown University, the center reached out to a group of Mandarin lovers and started to plan the salon program.

"We made a general plan to have a topic and select a passage each time to facilitate the specific topics," Wang said.

Due to the proximity of this weekend's Chinese New Year, they decided to kick the salon off on Tuesday evening with a festive atmosphere at the center's offices on Massachusetts Avenue.

Through a true-or-false quiz, a folk song and riddles about characters and words, Wang discussed the Spring Festival and the aspects of fu, meaning good fortune, with the students.

Participants will gather at the center every two weeks and discuss a specific topic picked by Wang, or another Chinese language professor, according to the plan.

In order to insure every participant has a chance to talk, class size is limited to 30.

Wang plans to cover such topics as Chinese folk customs, language, culture, politics and economics.

"We really want to get feedback from our participants to learn more about their interests and needs to help us better prepare our programs," Gao said.

The first salon gave Wang a good idea of the participants' level of Chinese.

Benjamin Creutzfeldt, a researcher on Chinese foreign policy at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who has been studying Chinese for 25 years, came to the salon because he wanted a way to keep his Chinese ability up and the location is right next door to his work place.

"It's an interesting experiment to try getting people together," he said. "At the moment, it has been very guided by the host. Over time, maybe it can become more social.

"Cultural topics are fun to talk about, but they are more for beginners. Most people who come here seem to have quite a good level of Chinese, we can talk about more serious stuff," he said.

"Individuals can come together to network with others as they otherwise may not be able to. It's good to be able to make friends and really put yourself in an environment that forces you out of your comfort zone," Bomberger said.

Before coming to the Chinese Salon, Kadidia Konare, a staffer at the International Finance Corporation, only had one-on-one Chinese classes with her teacher.

"It's very useful," she said. "I've been looking for ways to practice Chinese, and it's always nice to come to a different group."

For her, meeting with other learners pushes her to work harder one her Chinese.

"I know I'm not the best," she said. "I will definitely continue to come to the Chinese Salon."

Starting out with only advanced Chinese speakers, "hopefully over time, with more building on to the event, we can have advanced to intermediate and maybe down the line cater to individuals who have beginning Chinese or no Chinese at all," Bomberger said.

Yuan Yuan in Washington contributed to the story.