“[Government agencies] continue to experience shortages of people skilled in hard-to-learn languages due to a limited pool of Americans to recruit from.”
– Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) at a 2002 hearing on
“A National Security Crisis: Foreign Language Capabilities in the Federal Government”
Chinese Language Study at IWP
One-fifth of the world population speaks Chinese, making it the most widely spoken language in the world. According to the State Department, Chinese is one of the Critical Languages and has over 1.2 billion native speakers. In addition to the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan, many other countries/regions also speak Chinese, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Mongolia.
Learning and mastering the Chinese language has tremendous advantages in terms of gathering information, explaining and advocating U.S. policies, establishing and maintaining U.S.’s diplomatic platforms, building and maintaining trust, and creating relationships. In today’s rapidly changing world, the need for these skills has never been more critical.
The Chinese courses offered by IWP are designed to help students to achieve their language proficiency goals, to promote successful communication and performance in their professional assignments, to bring cultural awareness, and to enhance the leadership and management capabilities of the U.S. foreign affairs community.
IWP offers the following Chinese language courses:
IWP 946 – Beginning Chinese II
IWP 947 – Intermediate Chinese I
IWP 948 – Intermediate Chinese II
These courses may be taken as a part of IWP’s Continuing Education Program.