by Jack Markell (Governor of Delaware) and Gary Herbert (Governor of Utah)

Oct. 25, 2016, at 7:00 a.m.

America’s economic growth is inextricably tied to the strength of its bilateral trade and investment relationships around the world, but we will fall short of achieving our full economic potential if we fail to prepare the next generation to manage those relationships.

Tomorrow’s leaders must be able to compete, work and thrive in a globalized world with diverse, multilingual consumers and economies in which China and the U.S. will continue to be major players. By offering American students early education opportunities to learn Mandarin, we can prepare them for careers in a world and workplace in which our country’s bilateral ties play a consequential role.

We are encouraged by the growing number of American students who have begun learning Mandarin in school in recent years. The U.S. Department of Education reported that after Spanish, Mandarin was the most popular dual-language education program implemented by individual states in 2013.

Still, we have a lot of ground to make up if we are to equip our students with the necessary language tools to engage with the world’s second-largest economy. While China boasts more than 300 million English-language learners, there are only 200,000 K-12 Mandarin language learners here in the U.S. Further, English classes are mandatory for Chinese K-12 students, but less than 0.4 percent of American K-12 students are currently studying Mandarin.

Input Chinese on Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Dr. Shijuan Liu

Settings > General > International > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard >

Chinese-Simplified (handwriting) 简体手写

Chinese-Simplified (Pinyin) 简体拼音

Chinese-Traditional (Pinyin) 繁体拼音

Type Chinese characters (Hanzi) on Computers (PC Windows)

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Dr. Shijuan Liu

Pinyin, the alphabetical system used for helping people to learn the Chinese language, consists 26 alphabetical letters, except v, which allows us to use the standard QWERTY keyboard to input Chinese characters.

There is a special letter in Pinyin, ü, which does not exist in English writing and the standard keyboard. To type ü, use v on the standard keyboard.

Learn more about Pinyin from

https://chinesepod.com/tools/pronunciation

http://www.pinyin.info/index.html

Option 1: Type online:

Comment: Work on any computer, NO need for downloading, but need the internet connection

http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/ime.html

https://www.google.com/inputtools/try/

Option 2: Change settings on your computer:

Comment: No need for downloading

For PC, refer to the tutorial at https://www.pinyinjoe.com/windows-8/win8-chinese-intro.htm

For MAC, refer to the tutorial at http://pinpinchinese.com/blog/how-to-use-pinyin-to-type-chinese-mac

Option 3: Download app/software/extension

https://shurufa.sogou.com/

https://srf.xunfei.cn/

Google on Input:

https://www.google.com/inputtools/services/features/input-method.html

China from above

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Dr. Shijuan Liu

http://natgeotv.com/uk/china-from-above

China is a land of immense scale and diversity, an ancient civilization with a fascinating history dating back thousands of years.

From the monumental engineering feats of the Great Wall, to innovative and unique farming techniques, and a massive water splashing festival, you’ll discover how China has transformed its cities and infrastructure so much in three decades while still retaining its strong traditions, and how these strong traditions have shaped China’s landscape to make it uniquely recognizable and truly magnificent, especially from the air!

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/11/china-from-above/416424/