PCC Partners with USC to Enhance Chinese Language Program

Pasadena City College has formed a broad, long-term partnership with the University of Southern California to enhance PCC’s burgeoning Chinese Language Program and encourage its students to seek careers as Chinese language teachers.

“Because of China’s rise as a global superpower, it has become more important than ever that a partnership like this exists,” said Dr. Cathy Wei, PCC professor of Languages. “It will help students master the Chinese language and become familiar with Chinese culture, which eventually become tools as important as any in the world of international business and diplomacy.”

Made possible by a Department of Education Title VI Grant, the partnership serves on multiple fronts, namely: to encourage historically underrepresented groups to take a Chinese language class and eventually become Chinese language majors; to encourage heritage students in advanced courses to enter California State University teacher credentialing programs; and to develop curriculum for online/hybrid Chinese-language courses in specialized fields such as international business, hospitality, and medical services that will be transferable to USC or the UC system.

PCC’s Chinese Language Program, which has three full-time instructors and six adjuncts, offers classes that help students develop communicative skills in the Chinese language and a cosmopolitan knowledge of Chinese culture and literature.

Currently, PCC has as many as 600 students enrolled in the Chinese Language Program, Wei said, adding that she has seen enrollment of non-Chinese students increase the past few semesters.

Miguel Angel Urrutia, a sophomore Business Administration major, entered the program last summer and is currently taking a second-year Chinese 2 course.

“I took four years of Chinese when I was a high school student at Rosemead High,” said Urrutia, who is also fluent in Spanish. “And most of my friends were Chinese, so it made sense. I really like the Chinese culture and I experienced most of it through my friends.

“When I got to PCC, I focused on business mostly,” he added, “but then I learned about the Chinese Language program and I decided to continue it here. As a business major who is considering international business in the future, I think it would be a definite benefit for me to be trilingual.”

An important component of the PCC-USC partnership is that it will also allow collaboration between students of both campuses, either in a mentorship capacity or through social activities. The institutions hope to bring PCC students and students of the Joint East Asian Studies Center together to participate in intercultural activities and develop a wider community network through programming at the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena.

The JEASC is a consortium that brings together the Asia Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles and the East Asian Studies Center at USC.

“We’re planning to provide cultural workshops and seminars here or at the USC campus,” Wei said.

Mentorship and tutoring opportunities for both JEASC and PCC students will also be formed through a Global Studies Club at PCC, said Wei, who will also serve as the club’s advisor. At PCC, heritage students (those who were born in a Chinese-language country and are proficient in Chinese) are expected to serve as on-campus mentors.

With the partnership, Wei said she hopes to see increases in the number of students studying Chinese at PCC, majoring in East Asian fields, and ultimately transferring to UCLA, USC, or the CSU system.

For more information about the partnership, please contact Wei at (626) 585-7464.