• About
  • Events
  • Community Calendar
  • Advertise
  • Subscriptions
  • Foundation
  • Contact
  • Seattle Chinese Post

Northwest Asian Weekly

  • Community
    • Names in the News
    • Local
    • Business
    • Pictorials
    • Obituaries
  • Nation
  • World
  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Columns
    • On the Shelf
    • At the Movies
    • A-POP!
    • Publisher Ng’s blog
    • The Layup Drill
    • Travel
    • Wayne’s Worlds
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentary
    • Publisher Ng’s blog
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Astrology
  • Classifieds
  • Community Calendar
You are here: Home / Opinion / In response to the Chinese language controversy at Duke University

In response to the Chinese language controversy at Duke University

February 8, 2019 By Northwest Asian Weekly

The Chinese-speaking controversy at Duke University has revealed a shallow outlook towards Chinese foreign students. The actions of Duke’s biostatistics faculty, while admirably well-intended, were founded on the uninformed assumptions of outsiders.

First off, the Duke faculty assumed the students were speaking Chinese because they didn’t care to learn and improve their English. This is a ridiculous idea. These Chinese students came to the United States to to study, in English. If they didn’t want to learn English, they would never have come in the first place.

In fact, I believe there isn’t a person in America who wouldn’t want to learn English. One day, I was at an Asian grocery store with my mother. As we were about to leave, one of the cashiers flagged her down. A customer was trying to communicate something to the cashier, neither knew enough English to understand the other. Through the efforts of the customer’s daughter, who translated from Spanish to English, and my mother, who translated from English to Chinese, the cashier and her customer were able to resolve their situation. I don’t doubt that they would gladly have preferred to handle things on their own without having to bring in a third party.

Duke’s faculty may have believed that their international students were simply too lazy to bother using English, but I believe they were speaking Chinese for a different reason. College, especially for a foreign student with no nearby family relations, is tough. My mother, herself once a Chinese-speaking foreign student, has spoken of this isolation several times, and I have seen its effects with my own eyes at my high school. Students, who have a foreign language for a mother tongue and broken English as a secondary language, usually sit apart from their native English-speaking peers. I usually see them understandably more absorbed in their phones than in the obscure conversation around them. Until another foreign student joins them, that is. All of a sudden, these young men and women who were as quiet as tree stumps suddenly burst into life like the vibrant colors of fall. They begin talking. They crack jokes and smile. Their morale skyrockets, and they begin paying attention in class.

Such is what I believe is happening with the foreign students of Duke and elsewhere. After a long day listening to lectures and taking notes, all in a language foreign to them, Duke’s Chinese students are merely trying to keep their spirits up and enjoy college life. Perhaps they are discussing interesting English phrases heard during the day.

Duke’s faculty meant well, but perhaps they should investigate a perceived problem before proposing a solution. The thought that these students, who study in English and live in an English-speaking country, do not want to learn English is an unfounded, irrational, and insulting belief. This unfortunate misunderstanding has resulted in victims on both sides. A more compassionate approach will lead to more productive conversations in the future.

— Emily Chua, Bellevue

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Opinion, Letters to the Editor Tagged With: 2019, VOL 38 NO 7 | FEBRUARY 9 - FEBRUARY 15

Comments

  1. AnonMD says

    February 10, 2019 at 7:32 pm

    What is more alarming is the two faculty AND the Chairman who demanded to know the identities of these students so they could discriminate against them in hiring. How is this legal? Litigation needs to be brought forth against Duke for this. We cannot let this story die. If this type of racial discrimination in employment involved Black students, all involved would be immediately fired.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Find us on Issuu!

Subscribe to our e-news

© 2020 NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
412 MAYNARD AVE. S., SEATTLE, WA 98104
206-223-5559 | INFO@NWASIANWEEKLY.COM
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.