Posted on 01/29/2019 11:33:06 AM PST by simpson96
Beijing -- China on Tuesday questioned the appropriateness of an email sent by a Duke University medical school administrator warning Chinese students to speak in English. Asked about the controversy, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang compared it to a Chinese university demanding that English-speaking students talk only in Chinese.
"If a Chinese university required that American students not use English to communicate, I think this would not be normal," Geng said at a daily briefing.
Duke University in North Carolina moved quickly to offer apologies, launch an investigation and reassure a core group of graduate scholars after the email raised an outcry at home and abroad.
The story drew thousands of comments in China on social media. Some called it racial discrimination and said Chinese universities should ban speaking English, while a few said it was not a big deal.
The administrator's message came at a time when elite U.S. universities are trying to remain attractive to top international students despite negative rhetoric toward foreigners by President Donald Trump and other politicians.
Protests mounted after the email was sent Friday by Megan Neely, who teaches in the biostatistics master's degree program and served as its director of graduate studies.
Neely's message to an email list for about 50 biostatistics students said two faculty members approached her to complain about students speaking loudly in Chinese in a common area. She wrote that both were disappointed the students weren't working to improve their English and wanted their names. The email urged international students to "keep these unintended consequences in mind when you choose to speak in Chinese in the building."
Amid the angry response, Neely stepped down as the program's director of graduate studies, according to a letter from Mary Klotman, the medical school dean.
I think the speak English is correct.
Chinese is a tonal language and almost has to be spoken loudly in order to produce the right degree of inflection in the tones. So the problem was actually that they were talking very loudly and this was bothering the other students.
That said, if they plan to work in the US or go on for further studies here, they should try to speak English as much as possible and also participate in things with native speakers of English. The problem with many foreign student programs is not only do they not learn colloquial spoken English, but they may not even understand the classes very well. According to people I have met who have taught, cheating is rampant and even expected in these programs.
Fine! Send all the Chinese students home. Problem Solved and we will have less risk of loosing IP.
Had to get their 'dig' in there..................
stop kissing chinas butt
xi is quickly finding out lame insults is the best he can do against President Trump.
SOOOO—Is China expecting all the teachers & other personnel to speak Chinese when trying to teach MEDICINE???
Let them learn Medicine back in China.
This is AMERICA.
WE speak ENGLISH here.
The professor who “warned” the students was even doing so as an “ally.” Ie) hey guys, if you don’t speak English around the lab, it might limit your career and research opportunities with others who see this.
This whole issue is simply more of the same mainstream media, leftist racial guilt pandering and white self-flagellation.
I’ll bet that Megan Neely was wearing a MAGA cap when she assaulted those poor Chinese kids.
So, now, China, a country that’s been persecuting Christians and trying to purge Christianity, is lecturing the U.S. about discrimination? lol
If I were in any other country in the world I would expect to need to be able to speak their language if they could not speak mine. I would also expect them to specify that I conduct business in their native tongue if that is what they wanted. Their country, their rules.
Same here.
When I was in college there were some asian students who talked back and forth in their language during tests. I wonder what they were doing? /s
“I think the speak English is correct.”
Irony.
Red China’s reach into American academia is far and wide.
That is a danger we need to address.
Duke caves again. Besides literally convicting some of their students of a rape that didn’t happen, now they kowtow to the Red Chinese and they lose a good teacher/administrator.
The Duke Blue Devils are now more like the “Duke Red Devils”.
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