Research (Week 1): Chinese School for Argentines

Chinese School (Located in the Instituto de la Medicina Tradicional China). The owner, Mr. Chung, is from Taiwan and is a staunch supporter of reunification with the mainland. He pulled me aside and told me not to associate with pro-independence organizations. He's passionate about promoting Chinese culture and gave me several books.

Anna Liu teaches most of the classes here. She is from Beijing. She is very busy as she manages a wholesale store for stuffed animals during the week and teaches Chinese on weekends. She is fluent in Spanish as she was a Spanish professor in China before she came to Argentina. Her students regularly win Chinese competitions and singing contests.

Argentines learning Chinese seems to be a growing trend. Numerous schools exist around the city. I sat through two beginner classes. The first class was mostly comprised of teenagers and college students, while the second class was mostly professionals. These students take part in Chinese reading competitions and participate in yearly Chinese singing contests held by the Chinese embassy.

The students told me that it's still quite uncommon to learn Chinese. But they believe that the trend is catching on. They all believe that China's influence in the world will keep growing and it will be beneficial to learn Chinese for the future. Gonzalo, the youngest student is only 10. Carolina, a 14 year old high school student, wants to be a lawyer and hopes to work in China one day. Two of her friends in school joined her for fun and they think its "interesting and exciting."

Silvina is a family lawyer and represents a few Chinese families. She wants to be able to communicate with them more easily. "I want my website to have a Chinese version in the future," she said. Both she and her boyfriend are learning Chinese.

Victoria is an English-Spanish interpreter and is also an English professor. She wants to add Chinese to her translating/interpreting repertoire. Iris, a fitness instructor, is simply interested in Chinese culture. She does Kung-fu, Tai-chi, and wants to learn Chinese medicine.

David and Ana, both college students, have actually won scholarships provided by the Confucius Institute to study Chinese in China next year.

I'm not sure how this fits into my project but it's quite interesting. If I have time I'll speak more with these students and write an article.