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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (June 30, 2016) – Milligan College students now have the opportunity to learn the world’s most widely-spoken language, Mandarin Chinese, starting this fall.
“Learning Chinese opens a world of opportunity for students, in fields such as business, missionary work, comparative studies and teaching,” said Hongyou Lu, Milligan’s instructor of Mandarin Chinese. She was born in Chongqing, China, and lived in the country for 22 years before later earning a Master of Arts in East Asian studies from Stanford University. “This course sequence not only introduces new cultures and perspectives for cross-cultural comparison, it distinguishes a student’s skill set for graduate studies, future careers and understanding the fast-changing world around them.”
Milligan’s Mandarin Chinese 2-year course sequence fulfills students’ foreign language requirement for the Bachelor of Arts. The college offers both elementary and intermediate Chinese, emphasizing in-class discussion, as well as a linguistic and cultural awareness of the language.
In addition to teaching Chinese, Hongyou serves as the program development associate for engineering at Milligan. Hongyou holds a Bachelor of Arts in history and international relations from Peking University in Beijing, China, and a Master of Public Policy and Master of Science in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley. She has been working as a senior research associate at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the last eight years.
This new language offering follows the recent announcement of Milligan’s Spanish major, as well.