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Hello,

I administer an Asian Languages center in SE Portland. The Bodhi Tree Language Center since 2003 has been offering classes in Mandarin Chinese for preschoolers, children and adults. Our first class was a Japanese class for Adults, since then we have classes in Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, Lao and Tibetan.

Average profile of our adult students in Mandarin Chinese classes are educated professionals -- teachers, principals of public or private schools, libraries, software developers, business owners, financial advisors, tax consultants, marketing professionals. Most see the learning of Mandarin Chinese as a career opportunity (they are also interested in the culture and language in itself). We've seen quite a few managers from chip manufacturing plants come through our center to learn Chinese before relocating to China.

In our children's and preschool programs, many of the parents see Chinese as a very important language for the children to learn for the future.

In our other Asian language classes, the interest on part of the students is less career oriented, and more for pleasure or travel reasons. However, Vietnamese students are at least 50% interested in learning the language as a career choice -- as you know, at least among the large corporations investing in Asia, there is the one on one off policy, where for every one manufacturing plant set up in China, another is built elsewhere. Vietnam is a popular choice.

-- Richard Robinson
Bodhi Tree Language Center
http://www.bodhiTreeLanguageCenter.org
Email: see Contact us page of our Website
503-820-8621 (cell)

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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