<p>I just graduated from SIS with a minor in Chinese and I would like to vouch for the quality of the language program here. AU has an agreement with Beijing Language & Culture University, the premier language school in the country, to have three teachers per year from China. They stay here for a year, and then go back. In addition, we have three permanent professors here at AU, who are DC residents. One of the professors that I had also teaches at Georgetown, the State Department, and the World Bank. </p>
<p>Essentially, I had the same teachers from the time I was a sophomore in Elementary Chinese I to the my senior year when I was in Independent Study Chinese. My teachers here went back to Beijing when I studied abroad my Junior year and some of them were at AU my junior year and senior year too. </p>
<p>We have a high-quality, established Chinese department here at AU and I think that it has definitely developed and grown in the recent years. AU has a language immersion program in China as well as the abroad programs in Beijing and Hong Kong. If your son or daughter is interested in taking Chinese, I would definitely recommend it and you will find the program to be of very high caliber.</p>