Posts

2014 CLS East Asia program wraps up

This year’s Critical Language Scholarship East Asia summer programs in China, Japan and Korea have successfully completed and students from all over the US have returned to their respective universities. The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is a fully-funded overseas language and cultural immersion program for American undergraduate and graduate students. With the goal of broadening the base of Americans studying and mastering critical languages and building relationships between the people of the United States and other countries, CLS provides study opportunities to a diverse range of students from across the United States at every level of language learning. This year’s East Asia component was coordinated  by the Ohio State University Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures.

This summer 164 university students spent eight weeks in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou China, Wonju, South Korea and Himeji Japan in intensive study and immersion in their respective site’s cultures. Many made great leaps in their language skills, some even improving a whole language level, in the span of a summer. Of the program, one participant said:

“Because of CLS, I have come so far. Just a few months ago I wouldn’t have been able to order a hamburger in Chinese, let alone do a mock interview. Due to my participation in CLS, I now am confident that I can and will succeed when I do the real interview for a job in China. In fact, if I hadn’t participated in CLS, not only would I not have the language ability to pursue my dream, but I definitely wouldn’t have the cultural knowledge or confidence either. CLS is the reason I’m going to realize my Chinese dream.”