Dont use theTword.
p. A group of West Virginia University students spent a month in Taiwan this summer, but they werent in the Asian country astouriststhey were more like linguistic ambassadors, instead.

The 12, plus one graduate teaching assistant, are all enrolled in WVU s Chinese Studies Program. They logged four weeks at Ming Chuan University in Taipei where they participated in language immersion classes with other students from Canada and Korea.

Im very proud of them,said Dr. Hannah Lin, who coordinates the program.They worked hard in a language other than their own. They effectively communicated in another country.

Lin is the J. Vance and Florence Highland Johnson Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages.

Ming Chuans immersion program consisted of daily four-hour classes in Chinese that included reading, conversation, calligraphy and traditional songs.

WVU s students also took in the Han-Tang Traditional Chinese Music Orchestra, while also dabbling in martial arts, acrobatics, knot-tying and dancing. The Mountaineers from the West also bested the field in several Chinese poem and song competitionsand each delivered presentations in Chinese at the Young Leaders Cultural Exchange Conference.

Lin also presented her paper,Chinese as a Foreign Language: Past, Present and Futureat the conference.

And language, Lin said, is a two-way street, as the students happily discovered.

Not only did they work hard to learn about the language and the culture,Lin said,they also introduced West Virginia University to the people there. Im very proud of them.

The Department of Foreign Languages is in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information on the Chinese Studies Program, contact Lin at huey.lin@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-5121.