how have you found the program you are in? how about an update, please.

thanks
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Obviously, you’ve got me there. What can I say? I guess I would raise an eyebrow and ask him (via an interpreter), exactly how does that work?

For some concentrations of American Studies, it would obviously be bogus. Clearly, you can’t study American literature without knowing English.

But for other concentrations, it might be somewhat more understandable. Suppose there was a Taiwanese version of David, interested in American environmental issues (only David’s hypothetical doppelganger doesn’t speak English, though). IF there were enough Chinese translations on the topic (and that’s a big if, as I said in my July 23rd comment), then yeah, I could sorta see that. As long as he knows his PCPs from his BVDs, then his lack of knowledge about American urban legends or inability to order from a fine restaurant wouldn’t unduly bother me.

Or, to take another example, imagine somebody gets a masters degree in some kind of interdisciplinary Classics program, and can’t speak or read Greek. Again, I’d ask him, “How does that work?”

If he told me that he specializes in the economy of ancient Sparta, then I wouldn’t necessarily doubt his professional knowledge. I imagine that by now there are enough translations of source material to make study of that subject possible without knowledge of the original Greek. For him, a full appreciation of Homer’s poetry is something that’d be nice, but certainly not required.

As for it being easier for a professor to lecture in his native tongue, of course I concede that. But believe me, back in the West I’ve had my share of foreign professors with ABOMINABLE accents (and grammar). And that certainly didn’t seem to stop the university I went to from hiring them, or from assigning them to teach us.

At least here, foreigners who’ve been here a while know what to expect. Speaking from personal experience, I’ve kinda gotten used to the Taiwanese accent.

One other thing about Mark’s preference for Taiwanese programs being taught in Mandarin (for the purposes of language acquisition).

My point wasn’t about language acquisition, though that would be a good reason for a foreigner to take a program in Chinese. It isn’t really about the fact that instructors teaching in a foreign language won’t be able to teach as well, either. My point is that it’s a bit odd to be able to get a masters degree in Taiwan studies from a Taiwanese university, and not be able to speak or read the national language. Only a very small number of people here speak English fluently, and culture is very much tied to language.

What you think if you met a Chinese guy with a masters degree in American studies, earned from an American university if he couldn’t speak or read English?

Now, it probably would have been more ideal for him to pick some other major and study abroad, but that would have been tricky. He was a middle-aged guy with a wife and kids to support, a good job he was loath to abandon, and it would have been difficult and expensive for him to just up and leave Taiwan for two years in pursuit of higher education overseas.

Mark brings up an interesting point here. Actually, it doesn’t bother me much that someone could get a master’s degree in Taiwanese studies without SPEAKING Mandarin, but I do admit to having reservations that one could get a one without being able to READ Chinese.

(And I say this as one who can do neither.)

Just as a practical matter – how could a master’s candidate do research about Taiwan without being able to read most of the original source materials?